


From Beauxbaton to Hogwarts

by knk6700



Series: From Beauxbatons to Hogwarts [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Beauxbatons, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Eventual Romance, F/M, Hogwarts, Jasmine Dupont, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Romance, The Marauder's Map, i'm not good with tags, jasmine - Freeform, transfer student
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 96,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26149159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knk6700/pseuds/knk6700
Summary: Lily's cousin, Jasmine, comes to live with Lily and her family after something terrible happens to her mother. Jasmine is excited to be living with Lily but having to transfer schools in your sixth year is going to be a hard transition for Jasmine even with her cousin by her side, especially when one Marauder in particular won't leave her alone. Warning: Mentions of child abuse
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter & Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black/Original Female Character(s)
Series: From Beauxbatons to Hogwarts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053452
Kudos: 26





	1. Where It All Began

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything has to start somewhere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so excited to have finally started this story. I have been wanting to write this for a while now and I just had some free time, so I thought, why not. I hope you all enjoy the story as much as I will writing it. Also, updates will be completely irregular, just to warn you all. I really don't know when I will update, especially with school starting up again soon. Hope you enjoy my Marauders era fanfic.
> 
> Warning: Mentions of Child abuse ahead, please be advised. If this triggers you, feel free to skip over it. I won't be going too in depth into the abuse.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything in this story that appears to come from anything Harry Potter related. The only thing that I own in this story is my OC, Jasmine, as well as the plot of this story.

Chapter 1: Where It All Began

Lily hadn’t seen her cousin Jasmine since last summer. They were visiting her mother’s sister and Jasmine for Jasmine’s 15th birthday in July. It was the summer before Lily’s fifth year at Hogwarts. She was excited to go back. Her troubles with Petunia were only increasing and her parents weren’t really aware of it or at least weren’t really doing anything about it. Which is why Lily was so glad that Petunia decided to stay home for Jasmine’s 15th birthday. She was Lily’s favorite cousin and the only one that was a witch just like her, which is part of why Petunia elected to stay home. They didn’t see each other much, though. Jasmine, unlike Lily, didn’t go to Hogwarts. Instead she went to Beauxbatons Academy in Southern France because of the fact that that is where her father went. It wasn’t until after he graduated that he met Jasmine’s mother, considering that she is a muggle.

Unfortunately, Jasmine’s father died shortly after she started her first year at Beauxbatons Academy. It was a terrible time, and Lily felt so bad for her cousin. She didn’t know what it was like to lose someone like that. Lily had never experienced that before, but she could only imagine the amount of grief that Jasmine was going through. She wished that she could have been there for her, but since they lived so far away, and Lily had just her first year at Hogwarts, her parents decided it would be best if she stayed at Hogwarts for the time being.

Ever since then, Lily made sure to see Jasmine at least once every summer. She was worried about her. The first time that she visited her after the death of her father was shortly after she got home from Hogwarts. She went over to her house after begging her parents to visit them to see how they were doing after everything that had happened. Jasmine’s mother still appeared to be shocked greatly. She had only just been getting over the shock that her husband was a wizard and her daughter was a witch when she received the news of her husband’s death. Jasmine’s father never actually told her mother that he was a wizard, well until he realized that his daughter was also magical. He wasn’t sure if she would be a witch. He ended up telling them both he was a wizard on Jasmine’s 11th birthday. It shocked them both even more when he told Jasmine that she was a witch and that in the fall he wanted her to attend his alma mater, Beauxbatons Academy. Jasmine being the Daddy’s girl that she was immediately agreed to go there.

Lily and her family had some to visit them shortly after that. By this point, Lily’s parents had found out that Lily was a witch from McGonagall who was a professor at the wizarding school Hogwarts where Lily would be going in the fall. Although, Lily had already known about her being a witch and about Hogwarts from her new friend Severus Snape. Lily told Jasmine all about him, but she had left out the parts about the wizarding world after he told her that it was supposed to be a secret from the muggle world. Lily had wanted to tell her cousin about the wizarding world and everything, but she was afraid she would react the same way Petunia was. She didn’t want to lose the closeness that they had because Jasmine suddenly saw her as a freak instead of the cousin she always knew.

So, when Lily’s family came to visit Jasmine’s family for Jasmine’s birthday party, neither family knew that the other knew about the wizarding world. Lily’s family wasn’t about to tell them about it after McGonagall had explained everything to them about the statute of secrecy. Jasmine’s father had explained this to his wife and daughter as well, but that wasn’t going to stop Jasmine from telling her favorite cousin. They were practically sisters even though they didn’t see each other that much. They tell each other everything. Also, Jasmine didn’t think she would be able to keep such a huge secret from Lily anyway.

The party ended up lasting longer than the adults originally though it would, so by the time it ended, it was too late for Lily’s family to head back home. Luckily, Jasmine’s house was pretty big and had two guest rooms. Lily’s parents stayed in one and Lily and Petunia were going to stay in the other, but Lily really didn’t want to stay with Petunia. Jasmine saw this and suggested that her and Lily could have a sleepover in her room, which is what happened.

It was during this sleepover that Jasmine figured would be the best time to tell Lily about her being a witch, and so she did. At first Lily was shocked, which Jasmine assumed would happen, but she didn’t know it wasn’t because of the fact that witches and wizards were real. Lily was shocked that her cousin was just like her, a witch. Once Lily overcame her original shock, she told Jasmine about her also being a witch, which in turn shocked and excited Jasmine. For the rest of the night until they both fell asleep, they discussed the wizarding world. Both excited by the prospect that they would be learning magic in the fall, but also disappointed that they would be going to different magic schools. In the morning both families found out the other also knew about the wizarding world and it brought them closer together.

After that day, the two girls became even closer. They were best friends and acted more and more like sisters than they did cousins. They were also both there for each other. Lily was there for Jasmine after her father died, and Jasmine was there for Lily each time Petunia would tease her or call her a freak. Now they were only there for each other in letters via owls and the postal service, but it was better than nothing.

They almost kept nothing from each other, _almost_. There was one thing that Jasmine was not telling Lily, but only because she didn’t want to burden Lily with even more worry. Also, by this point Jasmine was used to it only because her mother has been doing this ever since Jasmine could remember. It’s not like she was hurting Jasmine physically and she what she said didn’t really affect Jasmine as much as she used to. Jasmine did think about telling Lily after she told her about what Petunia had been saying to her, but she decided not to, thinking that it was too late to tell her about it.

Jasmine realized that what her mother was saying to her was wrong and could be considered emotional abuse, but Jasmine also never thought her mother meant any of it. After all, she was drunk whenever she would say those things about her. It was obviously the alcohol that was affecting her and what caused her to call her own daughter a selfish brat and an ugly disgusting girl. Her mother never meant it. Also, she wouldn’t get drunk all that often anyway, so it wasn’t an issue, until it became one.

After Lily had visited that summer after Jasmine’s father died, it became much worse. Her mother was still not hitting her, which Jasmine was very thankful for, but she was drinking more and more. Soon her mother was getting drunk almost every night. Therefore, she was almost always calling Jasmine a freak or selfish or ugly and a lot of other different names. None of that was true though, Jasmine kept telling herself that. Jasmine could handle it, though. She knew none of it was true and sometimes, when her mother would remember, Jasmine even got an apology from her mother. Those apologies made it a little bit better, but Jasmine wanted her mother to just stop drinking. She tried to convince her to stop, but that always led to empty promises. By Jasmine’s 3rd year at Beauxbatons Academy, she gave up on trying to help her mother, who was now an alcoholic. Instead, Jasmine just left it alone.

Soon Jasmine and her mother just started to ignore each other. They would eat meals in silence and mostly keep to themselves. Jasmine would mainly stay in her room, especially after she saw her mother start drinking. Jasmine took comfort in writing letter to Lily and her friends that she had made at Beauxbatons Academy. None of them knew what was going on between Jasmine and her mother, and Jasmine didn’t plan on telling any of them.

Everything was still the same when Lily finally came to visit her for her 16th birthday. Jasmine was so excited to finally be seeing her cousin again. Their letters were nice, but they were nothing compared to seeing Lily in person. She hadn’t seen Lily yet this summer because her family was really busy. So, she was very excited that they were able to come down for her 16th birthday. Jasmine was so excited that she didn’t even notice that her mother wasn’t up yet when she went and got breakfast and then got dressed.

After she was done getting ready, Jasmine decided to read one of her spell books. She had a bit of summer homework that she needed to do and figured that while she waited that she could at least get some of it done. She was in the middle of reading when she heard the doorbell. She made sure to save her page before she ran to the door. Jasmine was surprised that her mother was not at the door first since her room was closer to front door than Jasmine’s was. Jasmine opened the door, only to be tackled by her favorite cousin. They both ended up on the floor giggling. They were both clearly happy to see each other.

Once off the floor, Jasmine greeted her aunt and uncle by giving each a hug. Jasmine noticed that Petunia had once again decided to stay home, which Jasmine was thankful for since she didn’t like Petunia very much, especially after what Lily told her.

The girls were just about to start talking and catching up when her aunt asked where her sister was. Jasmine looked at her aunt in confusion. That’s when she noticed that her mother was still not there. Assuming that she was just sleeping in a little bit, Jasmine told her aunt she was probably still asleep, and she would go wake her up. Her aunt was about to stop her, but Jasmine had already started in the direction of her mother’s room. Not wanting Jasmine to wake her sister up, she followed Jasmine to her sister’s room. Not far behind her were her husband and daughter. They were curious as to why Jasmine’s mother wasn’t awake yet.

Jasmine reached to room first. She threw it opened and saw her mother lying on the bed asleep, so she ran up to her and started shaking her trying to wake her up. Not long after the Evans family arrived at the room only to find a crying Jasmine on the floor, which was covered in beer bottles. They all were able to connect the dots and figure out what had happened. Lily’s mom collapsed into her husband’s arms and Lily ran over to comfort her crying cousin.

Once everyone collected themselves enough to make it back to the sitting room, Lily’s father called the police to report the incident. This only brought Lily’s mom back into tears again. Jasmine, however, was feeling more guilty that sad at the moment. She didn’t have it in her to keep crying. Needless to say, this was the worst birthday that Jasmine ever had.

By the time the police arrived, Lily’s father had laid her mother down in a bed in one of the guest rooms so that she could rest. The loss really got to her. The police questioned each of them. It would have been separately, but Jasmine insisted on having Lily by her side when the police questioned her. She told them everything from how her mother had become an alcoholic to how she tried to get her to stop. She told them about how she had been calling her names and emotionally abusing her since she could remember but that it only happened when she was drunk. By the time she was finished telling them everything, Jasmine was crying again. “I should have tried harder to help my mother,” she cried out, but the policeman told her that if her mother didn’t want any help, then there was nothing she could have done to stop it.

Soon the police were done. They were pretty that Jasmine’s mother died accidentally, but they would let them know for sure after the medical examiner finished his examination. They would probably know by next week.

In that time, the Evans stayed with Jasmine at her house. Since she was now an orphan, it was decided that she would go and live with them, at least until she was of age and got a place of her own. They stayed at Jasmine’s for about another week in order to settle all of Jasmine’s mother’s affairs along with sell the house. The funeral was a small quiet affair. It was a nice little ceremony that Jasmine and her aunt really appreciated. They ended up cremating her. They took the vase with them when they packed all of Jasmine’s things up. Jasmine was sad to leave her home knowing she would never go back, but she was also slightly excited to be living with Lily. They were already practically sisters and now they were even going to be living with each other. There was also the fact that they would be seeing each other for the rest of the summer. That thought put a smile to Jasmine’s face as they drove away from her childhood home.

It wasn’t until a week after living with Lily that she realized that living with her aunt and uncle meant that she had to transfer to Hogwarts. She realized when not one, but two Hogwarts letters came to the house. One was obviously for Lily, but the other was for Jasmine, which is when Jasmine realized that she would be going to Hogwarts in the fall instead of Beauxbatons Academy. She was going to be losing so much, but yet Jasmine didn’t mind it as much as she thought she would. Really the part that upset her the most was that she was losing one of her only other connections that she still had with her father. She was still a witch though, and magic would always connect them to each other. Other than that, though, there wasn’t anybody that Jasmine was particularly close with at Beauxbatons Academy that she was going to miss very much. She could still keep in contact with her friends through the owl post and there was always over the summer that she could possibly see them. So, the news that she would be going to Hogwarts wasn’t actually that bad.

While Jasmine was thinking about what going to Hogwarts would entail, Lily had grabbed the letters and dragged Jasmine up to her room, well their room. The Evans didn’t have a spare room, and since Lily’s room was pretty big, they decided to have Jasmine room with Lily for the time being. Jasmine didn’t mind though. After getting to the room, Lily pushed Jasmine inside and then walked in herself pulling the door closed behind her. The push Lily gave Jasmine pulled her out of her thoughts and just in time because she fell on the floor.

After getting off the floor, Jasmine saw that Lily was sitting on her bed with the letters in her hands. The excitement was written all over her face. It was clear that Lily was excited to open her Hogwarts letter, but Jasmine thought she seemed a bit too excited. She voiced this thought after she took a seat next to Lily on her bed. Turns out she was hoping she got a prefect badge, but seeing Jasmines confused expression had to explain what a prefect was to her. After she finished explaining, she couldn’t hold it in any longer. She threw my letter at me, which I managed to just barely grab, and she tore open the envelope.

Based on the excited scream she let out when she looked in the envelope, Jasmine guessed that she got the prefect badge that she wanted. This was confirmed when Lily dumped out the contents of the envelope. Out came a badge and the letter. She was super happy. In her euphoria, Lily managed to still read through her letter to see what she would need this year. Then she folded the letter back up and put on her dresser knowing she would need to bring it when they went to go buy books for the semester. Then Lily sat back down on her bed and looked at Jasmine expectantly. She was waiting to see Jasmine’s letter from Hogwarts.

“Come on Mina, open the letter. I want to see how they are planning on doing your transfer. You were obviously already accepted,” Lily explained to her cousin expectantly using the nickname that for Jasmine that she has been using since they were little girls.

Jasmine was unsure of what the letter could possibly hold. She wasn’t nearly as excited as Lily had been, so she didn’t find it necessary to tear open the letter. Instead, Jasmine opened the envelope as she would open any envelope. Then she took the letter out and read it. It basically just said that she was accepted and that the credits that she earned at Beauxbatons Academy would be transferred over to fit Hogwarts learning requirements. Given that, it best matched up that she would be going into her 5th year like her cousin. She would be expected to take her O.W.L.s like the rest of her class at the end of the year even though at Beauxbatons Academy, their equivalent wasn’t taken until 6th year. Jasmine wasn’t worried about that though. She was pretty sure that there would be new things that she would learn at Hogwarts, but she believed that she might just be a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to their curriculum. She had heard about Hogwarts from Lily and compared to Beauxbatons Academy, it seemed like a pretty lax school, not that she minded that. She was glad that she was going to be able to slouch a little bit at school. Beauxbatons Academy was a bit strict, but it was such an amazing school.

The letter also stated that since one of the extra courses or elective courses that she was taking at Beauxbatons Academy was not offered at Hogwarts that she had to choose between several other listed courses. Each of the courses’ books were listed, but they wanted a response, so Jasmine quickly wrote a short note to the professor who sent the letter that she would be taking Muggle Studies. She figured that it was best to take the class that she has a least some prior knowledge in just since she was sort of behind in terms of the course curriculum of other 5th years.

The letter also stated that there were other things such as the horseback riding that she did, that was not offered at Hogwarts. That greatly disappointed Jasmine as horseback riding was one of her favorite parts about Beauxbatons Academy. She would greatly miss it. She was glad that Hogwarts also offered music as a course, but she was sure that it would greatly contrast the music courses at Beauxbatons Academy.

There were a few more things that the letter said. It said that she would be sorted after the first years. There would be an announcement about it. She was welcome to ride in the carriages or the boats, it didn’t really matter. Also, the letter said that while she waited to be sorted, she was welcome to sit next to her cousin or at the staff table, whichever felt more comfortable to her.

Jasmine related all this back to Lily while she wrote the short note about taking Muggle Studies as her extra course. Lily was happy that she was talking Muggle studies as Lily was also taking that course. Lily told Jasmine that if she wanted Lily could catch her up and she could even do the summer homework that she was assigned at the end of the semester. She told Jasmine that would really impress the teach. Jasmine agreed that it would probably impress her, but she wasn’t going to do any extra work if she didn’t have to.

Jasmine wasn’t like Lily when it came to school. Sure, she was smart, she had to be in order to excel in the many classes that she took st Beauxbatons Academy, but she didn’t try to be an overachiever. She did what was assigned to her in an orderly fashion. The only classes that Jasmine would be willing to do extra work in were Transfiguration and Music. Those were her favorite classes at Beauxbatons Academy and the ones that she excelled at and Lily knew this. She just thought she would give it a shot to try and move her cousin to try more in school.

The rest of the summer went by pretty quickly. The girls spent a lot of time together and luckily for them Petunia left them alone. She was too busy spending all her time with her boyfriend, Vernon, that both girls really could not stand. They had only met him a couple of times over the summer, though. Besides meeting Vernon, Jasmine also got to meet Severus Snape, the guy that Lily had first mentioned meeting. The three of them spent some time together, but Jasmine really didn’t like him. There was something about him that just made her feel uneasy. This uneasy feeling made her leery of the strange boy, but she was willing to tolerated him since he was such close friends with Lily.

When they went to get books, Lily seemed a bit apprehensive as if she were expecting to run into someone that she really didn’t want to see. Jasmine wasn’t sure who she kept looking out for, but she decided to leave it alone. Luck seemed to be with Lily, though, since they didn’t end up running into anyone that Lily didn’t want to see. They did run into a couple of Lily’s friends and dorm mates, including Alice and her boyfriend Frank Longbottom. Alice, Jasmine learned, along with a girl named Marlene were Lily’s best friends at Hogwarts. They ended up chatting with Alice and Frank for a little bit before they got back to shopping.

After they had gotten all of their books and other school supplies, the girls decided to do a little window shopping. They passed a couple of stores that sold broomsticks, but neither girl was really all that interested in quidditch. Jasmine had just never taken quiet as much of an interest in the game. She preferred to do horseback riding. Now that she wasn’t part of that, maybe she would get into the sport, not playing, but maybe watching. Who knows, maybe she would find and interest in the sport.

They also passed Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, which peaked Jasmine’s interest. She liked a good practical joke every now and then much to Lily’s dismay. They spent a several minutes just browsing what the story had to offer. Jasmine wanted to save her money though. She hadn’t played many practical jokes on many people at Beauxbatons Academy given the strictness of the school, but she knew she was going to have to pull one at Hogwarts. It had been a long time since she had pulled one, so she would probably only pull a small one. They looked at a few more shops before stopping at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour for an ice cream treat. After ice cream, they met back up with Lily’s parents and headed home. Within a few weeks the two girls would be going to Hogwarts together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Finally. It took me all day, but I finally finished this first chapter. Its more of a prologue/first chapter of this new story. I know it's really long. I don't know or think the other chapters will be this long, but who knows with me and my detail-oriented self. Anyway, I can't promise that a new chapter will be up soon because my classes start up again soon, but I just had to get this out there while was in the mindset of wanting to write. I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter. I tried to make sure everything was factually accurate or at least sort of canon. The next chapter will focus on Jasmine meeting the Marauders.
> 
> Peace out my fellow Potterheads
> 
> Knk6700


	2. Meeting the Marauders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasmine meets the Marauders and, much to Lily's dismay, befriends them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got around to starting the second chapter. Hope you enjoy.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 2: Meeting the Marauders

September 1st finally arrived, and the two girls couldn’t be more excited about it. Jasmine was so excited to be going to school with her cousin who was practically her sister. They even looked alike at first glance. They both had red hair and greenish eyes. Their face structures where also similar. Therefore, many times when they were out together, people would mistake them for twin sisters.

Although, when you look closer at the two girls, though, you can see the differences. Jasmine’s red hair wasn’t as dark as Lily’s. It was actually a bit lighter in color. While Lily was a true red head, Jasmine’s hair was more of a darker strawberry blonde color. Her hair color was like a mixture of both her parents’ hair colors. Her mother being a red head and her father being blonde. Her eyes were the same way. Although they looked to be green at first glance, they were actually a pale blue-green color. People often told her that her eyes were mesmerizing, especially the boys at Beauxbatons Academy. She always blushed at that complement, which always made her feel better about herself and what she looked like. It was partially because of the complements and her friends that kept her from believing her mother’s words.

The girls soon arrived at Kings Cross Station where they said goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Evans at the car. They had to get into work, so they couldn’t go with the girls to the actual train. They did help load their stuff onto some trolleys though. When the girls’ stuff was all out of the car and onto the trolleys, they said goodbye again. Jasmine’s aunt and uncle wished her a good term with the promise that they would see them for Christmas, which Jasmine was happy about. She was actually going to be going home for Christmas. She usually stayed at school because of her mother’s drinking habits.

After saying their final goodbyes, Lily led the way to the platform the train was on. Jasmine was a bit confused as to how they were going to get to the platform. It was obviously going to be hidden from the muggles, but she didn’t understand how. She found out once they arrived at the area between Platforms 9 and 10. Lily was about to start running toward the platform but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over and saw a confused Jasmine staring at her.

“Oh, sorry,” Lily apologized to her cousin. She gave her a sheepish smile before continuing. “I forgot to tell you how to get onto the platform. All you have to do is run at this barrier between platform 9 and 10. Don’t worry, you won’t run into the wall.” Then Lily took off running with her trolley into the said barrier. When she made contact, instead of crashing, she disappeared. Jasmine laughed in surprise as she took a sprint toward the barrier. She, like Lily, disappeared and ended up on platform 9 ¾. The sight of the train was amazing. It looked to cool. She was staring at everything in awe, but that was interrupted when she felt someone grip her arm and start pulling her toward the train. Jasmine looked to see that it was Lily.

“Come on, Mina. You can admire the train later. We have to get our stuff on before it leaves without us.” Lily continued to pull her cousin toward the train. Once they got to one of the many entrances, they tried to put their trunks on the train. They had started with Lily’s, but it was proving to be more difficult than they thought it would be.

“Jeez, Lils, what did you put in this trunk?” Jasmine questioned her cousin as they continued to struggle to get it onto the train.

“Just what I usually put in the trunk,” Lily responded innocently. “I don’t remember it ever being this heavy last term. Although, I usually have my dad to help me get it onto the train though.”

Jasmine face palmed. “Great. How are we supposed to get this trunk onto the train before it leaves?!” Jasmine mumbled to herself.

As they tried yet again to get Lily’s trunk onto the train, it suddenly felt a lot lighter. At first Jasmine thought it was just her imagination, but then she looked up and saw a boy with messy black hair and glasses pulling the trunk onto the train as we pushed it onto the train. Soon her trunk was on the train. Jasmine gave the boy an appreciative smile which fell as soon as she saw the look on Lily’s face. She was glaring at this boy that had just helped them.

“Go away, Potter. We don’t need your help.” Lily continued to glare at him.

“Well, it sure looks like you need my help, Evans,” the boy, Potter, said to Lily. He gave her a goofy smile.

“Well, we don’t. We can do this ourselves.” Jasmine could tell that Lily did not like this boy for whatever reason, but Jasmine wasn’t about to let the only boy that had offered to help them just walk away. They really could not handle this by themselves, especially since Jasmine knew her trunk would be much heavier than Lily’s.

Just as the boy was about to walk away, Jasmine spoke up. “Hey, um, wait. Actually, could you please help us.” Jasmine gave him a smile to sell it.

Lily glared at Jasmine, but before she could berate her, the boy spoke up. “Um, sure. I can help you.” He was glancing nervously at Lily. He didn’t seem to want to make her angry, which Jasmine could tell was a losing battle.

“Thanks,” Jasmine smiled at him again. “We could really use the help, but you might want to get another person. My trunk is going to be heavier than hers.” Jasmine explained pointing to Lily at the end. With that the boy disappeared probably to go get one of his friends. He was gone long enough for Lily to tell Jasmine off for accepting his help, though.

“What are you doing?” Lily asked my angrily. “We don’t need his help.”

“Lils, we do need his help. We could barely get your trunk onto the train without him. Mine is about twice as heavy as yours. There is no way we can lift this trunk all by ourselves without using magic.” Lily huffed angrily in response, but she knew Jasmine was right. “Who was that anyway? And why do you hate him so much?”

“That was James Potter and he is nothing but a bully.” Before Lily could say anymore, the boy, James, was back again. This time he was accompanied by another boy with long, wavy black hair. He looked like the bad boy type. He wasn’t too bad look. He was actually pretty handsome in Jasmine’s opinion.

“Woah!” The new boy exclaimed. He looked at me and Lily a few times before tuning back to James. “You were right, Prongs, there’s two of them now. What are we going to do?” He let out a laugh, much to James’ dismay.

Jasmine started to laugh with him, especially after she saw the look on James’ face. He was clearly embarrassed by what his friend had said. Several seconds later, Jasmine realized the other boy wasn’t laughing anymore. Instead he was staring at her curiously, like she was a puzzle to him or something. “What? Is something wrong?” Jasmine asked him as a blush started to appear on her cheeks. Then she noticed that James was also staring at her, but he was more in awe of her than anything. This only increased the redness of the blush on her cheeks

Lily just rolled her eyes and didn’t let the other boy answer Jasmine’s. “Black, Potter! Stop staring at her and help get her trunk on the train before it leaves without us.” Then Lily glanced at the clock on the wall before turning to Jasmine. “Mina, I got to get going. I’m sorry I can’t ride the train with you, but I have a prefect’s meeting I have to get to right now. Don’t let these two morons corrupt you. Please just go find Alice and sit with her. I might be able to join you guys later on.” Jasmine nodded in response to Lily before they hugged goodbye. Then Lily was gone with a swish of red hair.

Before she could complete disappear though, the long-haired boy yelled to her down the corridor. “Make sure to say hi to Moony for us Evans.” Lily didn’t even acknowledge him. Then he turned back to Jasmine. “So, where is this heavy trunk of yours?” He asked giving Jasmine what she could tell was supposed to be a lady killing smirk.

Jasmine didn’t respond, but instead point to where her trunk was sitting. Both boys jumped down off the train and walked over to the trunk. Apparently, they didn’t believe Jasmine completely when she told them would be pretty heavy because at first, they struggled to pick it up. It ended up taking several tries before they finally were able to get the trunk onto the train and place it up on the racks securely. They did the same with Lily’s, which didn’t take nearly as much effort.

Jasmine thanked them for their help and was about to leave when the boy with the long black hair spoke to me. “Geez, Evans. What did you put in that trunk to make it so heavy?”

“It’s Dupont.”

“What?”

“My last name isn’t Evans. It’s Dupont.”

“Wait! What?!” Both James and his friend cried out.

Their reactions were too much for Jasmine to take. She burst out laughing. Once she was able to compose herself again, she looked back to the two boys who were staring at her again but this time with curious glances on their faces.

“Okay, well if you’re not Lily’s sister, then who are? How do you even know Lily?” James asked of Jasmine.

Jasmine didn’t really know these boys but she kind of liked them. She didn’t care that Lily seemed to have a problem with them. She wanted to get to know them better. Forget Alice, Jasmine thought she would have much better time sitting with these two boys. “Um, is there somewhere we can go sit? I’d rather not stand in this corridor all day.”

The boys laughed before James said, “Yeah, neither do I. Come on, you can hang out with us for the train ride. Our compartment is right up here.” James pointed his arm down the corridor before heading in the direction he had been pointing. “So, Dupont, in case Lily didn’t mention my name already, I’m James Potter, prankster extraordinaire, and Lily’s future boyfriend.”

At that last part, Jasmine gave a small chuckle before saying, “Yeah, right.” Then she rolled her eyes. Her reaction then caused the other boy to laugh and James to blush before saying. Jasmine looked over at the other boy just as they reached their compartment. Inside was another mousy looking boy. He seemed very shy. As soon as he saw James and his friend though, he told them that he some place to go and scurried away. Leaving both boys to roll their eyes at his actions.

After the got comfortable in the compartment, James and the other boy sitting on one side with Jasmine alone on the other side. Both boys were staring at her as if expecting something from her. She knew they were expecting her to tell them her full name, but she wasn’t going to do that until she knew the other boy’s name. She waited expectantly, but soon realized that these boys were really stubborn, so she spoke up. “So,” Jasmine started looking at the boy. “What’s your name?”

“Oh, shit, sorry. I totally forgot to introduce myself. Sirius Black at your service.” He stood up and gave a little bow, which caused Jasmine to giggle. “And you are?”

“Jasmine. Jasmine Dupont.” By this point the train was moving and on its way to Hogwarts.

“Well Jasmine, would you care to tell us how you know our dear Lily?” Sirius asked clearly trying to be funny.

“Since when is she both of your dear Lily?” Jasmine joked. “I thought she was only James’ Lily.” At that Sirius started laughing and a blush was once again on James’ face.

“Oh man. I am liking you more and more Jasmine Dupont.”

“Well, thank you Sirius Black. I’m glad someone appreciates my humor. My old friends that Beauxbatons Academy didn’t really get my humor. Plus, it was a pretty strict school, so jokes didn’t always go over well there.”

“Wait a minute.” James says. Both of them turn to look at him. “Beauxbatons Academy? Why were you there?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute. First I still need to answer Sirius’ question.” Sirius smiled at Jasmine “Well I’ve known Lily for years. We’ve been best friends and practically sisters since we were born.” Jasmine noticed that the boys were still confused. “I’m her cousin, you idiots. Hasn’t she ever mentioned me?”

“I don’t know. We’re not entirely friends with Lily. It’s more like she hates our guts, but James is completely in love with hers,” Sirius told Jasmine.

James was about to protest, but Jasmine spoke up first. “Oh, wow. Really? What did you guys do to her? Lily doesn’t tend to hate a lot of people.”

“Actually, we didn’t do anything to her. She’s just mad that we pranked her friend, Snivellus.” Sirius told her.

“Really Snivellus? Did you come up with that one on your own?”

“Oh, the pain.” Sirius gasped dramatically causing Jasmine and James to start laughing again.

Once they composed themselves again, they continued to talk about Snape. Jasmine had told them that she had only just met him over the summer, and she got an unnerving vibe off of him. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him but more that she didn’t trust him, especially Lily.

It was the fact that she had only just met Snape that reminded James of his earlier question that never got answered. “Jasmine,” James said. “You never answered my earlier question about you going to Beauxbatons Academy? Why the sudden change?” At that, the boys noticed Jasmine tense up a little bit. James, fearing that he said the wrong thing again and ruined this new friendship, tried to backtrack by telling Jasmine that she didn’t have to answer the question if she didn’t want to.

“No,” Jasmine told James to stop him from continuing. “You asked the question earlier and I said I would come back to it. It’s just I’m coming here because of the best circumstance.” The boys, especially Sirius, now had worried looks on their faces. “Well, I started at Beauxbatons Academy because I promise my dad that I would go there. It is his alma mater.”

Interrupting, James said, “So you’re a half-blood? I would have though you were Muggle-born like Lily.”

“Nope, but I kind of grew up like a Muggle born. I knew nothing of Magic until my 11th birthday. That’s when dad told me and my mother that he was a wizard. Shocked us both, but it also excited me. So, me being the daddy’s girl that I was, I agreed to go to his alma mater. We lived in France anyway, so it made even more sense to go to Beauxbatons Academy.”

Sirius this time interrupted. “France? Well what are you doing here now?”

“I’m getting there if you let me finish.” Sirius gave her a sheepish look in response as to say sorry. “The reason I am coming to Hogwarts now is because I recently moved in with Lily’s parents, my aunt and uncle.” Jasmine paused knowing the questions were going to come. She had already planned for this. She was only going to tell them part of the story. She did just meet these boys, and Jasmine didn’t really think she was ever going to tell anyone about her mother besides Lily.

“Wait what?” Sirius asked. “Why did you move in with Lily?”

“Well, I’m an orphan. They said they could take me in, so here we are today.” Sirius looked at Jasmine. She could see the sympathy in his eyes, which meant a lot to Jasmine. It showed he at least cared for her.

“I’m so sorry. That’s terrible,” James apologized. “I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you right now.” Sirius, on the other hand, said nothing. He didn’t know what to say, so he just kept giving Jasmine sympathetic looks with some apologetic looks mixed in.

Jasmine looked at them both. “It’s fine. I miss them, though.” She got more apologetic looks before she changed the topic. “Enough of this sad stuff. I liked it better when we were laughing.”

Both boys agreed with that statement wholeheartedly and changed the topic. They ended up talking about Beauxbatons Academy. The boys were interested to know what it was like. They had previously heard about some of the other schools, but they didn’t know that much about them. Jasmine told them all about the school. She told them about how her favorite things about Beauxbatons Academy was that they had horseback riding and the musical aspects of the school. She told them how the school looked and everything and they just let her talk. James and Sirius were liking this girl more and more as the train ride continued.

They continued to talk and laugh for the rest of the train ride. The three were laughing hard at a joke Jasmine had just made, when Lily found them all together. Jasmine, hearing the compartment door open, was the first to look up. Seeing that it was Lily, she quickly composed herself. She saw that Lily looked worried, but Jasmine wasn’t entirely sure why until Lily spoke up. By the time Lily started speaking, Sirius and James had managed to compose themselves and saw that Lily was standing in the compartment door. James quickly shut up at the sight of his love and was about to speak, but Lily beat him to it. “Mina, what are you doing?” Lily asked, the anger clear in her tone. “I told you to go sit with Alice. Instead you sit with these toe rags.”

“Lils, I’m making friends. No offense to Alice or any of your friends Lils, but I’m having fun with them. They laugh at my jokes and they are even pranksters. You know I love a good practical joke, Lils.” Those last two statement surprised the boys. They were not expecting that from someone related to Lily.

Lily sighed in exasperation. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you with them!” Lily cried out in disgust. “Mina, listen, you don’t want to be friends with these two. They are nothing but immature bullies. They do nothing but torment other students. Mina, they are not good friends to have.”

Lily’s words pissed Jasmine off. “Well neither is Severus, Lils!” Jasmine raised her voice a little. ‘Who does she think she is to be able to decide you I can be friends with?’ Jasmine thought to herself.

Jasmine’s words then pissed Lily off, but before she could retaliate, the boys stepped in. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sirius said. “Girls let’s cool down here. There is no reason to get all worked up.” They then managed to diffuse the situation. Both James and Sirius had been on the end of Lily’s wrath and they didn’t want to see their new friend on the end of that.

Now that both girls had calmed down, Lily grabbed Jasmines arm in attempt to drag her away from the boys she thought would only corrupt her cousin. She was not going to let the girl who was her best friend and pretty much her sister be turned into the bully she knew these boys already were. Lily tried to pull her away from 2 of the Marauders, but Jasmine wouldn’t budge. “Come on Mina, let’s go sit with my friends now. You can meet all of them.”

“No, Lils. I’m not going with you. I need to make my own friends and I have. I don’t care if you don’t like them, Lily, I do. So, let me spend the rest of the train ride with them please.” Jasmine put on the face that she knew Lily could never say no to.

“Fine, Mina, but you are sitting with me at dinner and we are riding in the carriages to the castle together.” Lily gave Sirius and James a hard stare as if to say you better not mess with her or else you are both dead. Then she left with a swish of her red hair being the last thing that any of them say.

They sat in silence for a few seconds before Sirius broke it by breaking out into laughter. It was contagious, so the other two ended up laughing with Sirius. It took several minutes before any of them were finally able to stop laughing. Then they just sat in silence for a few minutes.

James was the one to break the silence this time. “Mina?” Then he let out a chuckle. Soon Sirius started to chuckle along with him, but they were quickly shut up when they looked over at Jasmine. She was glaring daggers at them and had her want out pointing it at the both of them.

“Don’t you dare ever call me that again. Only Lily is allowed to call me that, got it?!” Jasmine threatened them both. The boys both gulped. Then they vigorously nodded their heads in understanding. Once Jasmine was sure they understood, she calmed down and put her want away.

The tension and silence continued in the compartment for awhile after that. Jasmine was feeling slightly guilty for scaring the boy, but that was Lily’s special nickname for her. She refused to let anyone ruin the special nickname her cousin gave her. The tension was finally cut when the compartment doors opened again. In stepped another boy who Jasmine didn’t recognize. She assumed it was the boy that they told Lily to say hi to earlier, which means that he was also a prefect like Lily. Him entering was just what they needed to alleviate the tension that was created after Jasmine threatened them.

At first when the boy entered, he didn’t notice Jasmine. “James? Sirius? What’s wrong? Why do you look so scared?” The only response he got was a bunch of laughing. The boys were not laughing at the events that took place only moments ago. It wasn’t that they were laughing at the though of Jasmine actually hurting them, but more toward the fact that they were scared of her. They were supposed to be Gryffindors for crying out loud.

The boy continued to look at them curiously, until one of them was able to point to Jasmine who was sitting behind him in the compartment. He turned around and jumped a bit when he spotted Jasmine. He was not expecting to see a girl behind him, maybe Peter, but not a random girl that he had never seen before.

After getting over his initial shock, the boy introduced himself. “Hello, I’m Remus Lupin.” He held out his hand for the girl to shake.

“Jasmine Dupont,” Jasmine told him as she shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Remus.”

“Nice to meet you as well, Jasmine.” By this time, the other two boys had stopped laughing. Now that they were quiet. Remus was able to ask them what the heck was going on. So, after taking a seat next to Jasmine, he asked Sirius and James questions.

While they filled him in on what had happened while he was gone, Jasmine excused herself to go change into her robes. She figured they were getting closer to the castle, so she should probably change. Luckily, it didn’t take her long to find the bathroom and change. On her way back to the compartment that the boys were in, Jasmine was pulled into a random compartment. She immediately took out her wand, ready to attack whoever pulled her into another compartment. Jasmine lowered her wand when she saw that it was only Lily. Then when Jasmine realized what Lily did, she gave her a hard stare and walked right out of the compartment before Lily could stop her. Jasmine was still pissed off at her from earlier, but that stunt just angered her more. She understood that Lily was only trying to protect her in her own Lily way, but she needs to understand that Jasmine wanted to make her own mistakes. She wanted to learn for herself whether James and Sirius were as bad Lily keeps telling her that they are. So far Jasmine has seen nothing to support that conclusion.

After leaving Lily, Jasmine headed straight for the boys’ compartment. When she opened the door, she saw that James and Sirius were now also in their robes. Remus was already in his robes when he entered the compartment earlier. The boys were still conversing when Jasmine walked in. They didn’t notice her though. They seemed to be planning something, but Jasmine couldn’t hear what they were talking about. They were talking quieter as if they didn’t want anyone to overhear, which frustrated Jasmine, but she knew it was no of her business. She did just meet them. They didn’t need to tell her any of their secrets.

Jasmine made her presence known when she asked, “Hey guys. What are you talking about? Are you planning a prank? Because if you are, I want in.” The three boys jumped at her voice.

“Jeez, Dupont. You almost gave us all a heart attack!” Sirius exclaimed. Jasmine rolled her eyes in response and took her seat next to Remus.

“Welcome back Jazzy!” James said.

“Jazzy? When did you come up with that one?” Jasmine giggled at the new nickname that James had given her.

“Jasmine is too much to say, so I decided that you needed a nickname, especially after hearing that Lily already has one for you.” James gave her a goofy smile before asking, “Do you like it?”

“Well, no one has actually called me Jazzy before, so guess it’s okay. I kind of like it.” Jasmine gave him a smile, before turning to Remus and Sirius. “If you guys want, you can call me Jaz for short. It will be easier and that’s what some of my friends at Beauxbatons Academy would call me. I don’t mind.” Both boys nodded, agreeing that they would call her Jaz.

Soon the conversation shifted to pranking, seeing that Jasmine was the first to mention it. Remus was surprised to find out that Jaz also liked to pull the occasional prank or practical joke. They discussed the previous pranks they had pulled. The Marauders telling Jasmine all about their many pranks that they had pulled so far at Hogwarts. They even agreed to let Jasmine help pull their next prank.

They continued to talk and laugh for the rest of the train ride. Jasmine really liked the boys. She even met Peter shortly before the train pulled into the station. He had been off doing something that he wouldn’t tell them, but Sirius whispered that he was trying to woo this girl that he made friends with last year. She had no romantic interest in Peter, though. Jasmine was happy with her new friends, even if she was a little bit wary of Peter still. Just as the train pulled into the station, Jasmine just knew that this was the start of what she felt would be an amazing adventure at Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, second chapter complete. I’m really liking where this fic is going. Just to let you guys know, I’m going to try and update as much as I can before I start class on Monday, but I can’t promise anything. I also have several parts of this story outlined/mapped out. I know where I want this story to go. Let’s just hope I end up taking it the way I want it. Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to favorite and review. I would like to know if this fic is as good as I think it is.
> 
> >Peace out, Knk6700<


	3. The Sorting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Which house will Jasmine get sorted into

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, quick tangent. I have like the next several chapters (up to 6ish chapters) planned out to some extent. This means that when I do end up having the time to write more of this story again, it probably won’t take me as long as the first two chapters took me to write (each took me a day). Therefore, more updates or quicker updates when I have/find the time to write which probably won’t be until at least December, but maybe I will find the time somewhere before them. Also this is a bit shorter than the other two chapters, but I hope you still enjoy it
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 3: The Sorting

Jasmine was so happy to finally be at the school that her cousin talked so fondly to her about in the many letters she sent to her. She couldn’t wait to explore it inside and out like she had at Beauxbatons Academy. It was an exciting opportunity that she was being presented.

Getting off the train, Jasmine already decided that she was going to take the carriages to the castle, but she was not going to ride with Lily. She was still a little pissed off at Lily’s actions earlier on the train. In order to avoid Lily from dragging her away from the boys, she tried to hide among the boys, but since Lily knew she would be with them, she managed to catch up to them.

“Mina wait up! I thought that you were going to ride with me in the carriages.” Lily yelled to Jasmine

They all stopped in order for Lily to catch up to them. “I was Lils, until you pulled that stunt earlier.” Jasmine had already explained to the Marauders, which they told her was what they called themselves, what happened with Lily earlier. Remus was understanding about it, but James and Sirius thought it was funny. They stopped laughing when Jasmine glared at them though.

Lily gave Jasmine a guilty look. “I’m sorry, Mina, but I just don’t want you getting mixed up with the likes of Sirius and James. Remus is okay, and I don’t really know Peter, but he seems okay. I’m just trying to look out for you Mina.”

While Jasmine and Lily continued their argument on their way to the carriages, the four Marauders were having their own conversation about Jasmine. They were discussing whether they should let Jasmine become a Marauder. They, mainly James and Sirius, weren’t quite sure if she was up to par to be a Marauders. After much disagreement over the topic they decided to see if she was worthy after she helped them pull a prank this term. She had said on the train that she wanted in on their next prank. So, the boys agreed that if Jasmine helped them pull of an amazing prank, they would invite her to join them in the Marauders. They had already decided to pull a prank with in the first week, so they would just need to let Jasmine know.

By the time they reached the carriages, the boys had wrapped up their discussion and Lily and Jasmine had come to an agreement. Lily, begrudgingly, agreed to just ride in the carriage with the Marauders. There was just enough room for all of them, but they all managed to fit.

The ride up to the castle was almost silent, if it had not been for James continually trying to flirt with Lily. She ignored all of his advances, while Jasmine and Sirius were trying and failing to keep from laughing at James’ attempts at “flirting,” if could even be called that. They ended up completely failing and breaking out into laughter by the time they reached the castle. James just brushes off the laughter. He doesn’t entirely care if he looks foolish. He was trying to gain Lily’s attention, so if looking foolish is what it took, then so be it.

By the time, they reached the Great Hall, Jasmine and Sirius has stopped laughing. Jasmine had stopped when she saw the castle for the first time. She was staring around her in awe. It was gorgeous. Beauxbatons Academy was still a better-looking school to her, but Hogwarts was still pretty amazing. By now Lily had left them in favor of her friends over the Marauders. She was disappointed to have not spent more time with Jasmine, but she would see her plenty during the school year. She also didn’t think Jasmine’s friendship with the Marauders would last after her cousin saw how James and Sirius treated other students.

The boys could not help but take notice of the awe written all over Jasmine’s face. Noticing her looks, James and Sirius flanked her, with one on each side of her. James spoke up first. “Yes, Jazzy. I know it is a marvelous castle but wait until you see how much more it has to offer.”

Jasmine didn’t get the chance to respond before Sirius spoke up, “Yes, that’s right. There is more to this castle than you might think Jaz. There’s so much potential. Pranking potential that is.”

Jasmine started giggling at the boys’ antics. “You two are ridiculous. I am excited to explore this castle though.” The boys smirked at her in response and led her into the Great Hall.

In the Great Hall, the first thing that Jasmine noticed was all the professors at the front sitting at a table. The one in the middle, who James told her was Dumbledore, looked straight at her. Jasmine swears she saw a twinkle in his eyes. She brushed it off as her imagination though. The next professor that she spotted was Professor McGonagall, or who she thought was McGonagall. The woman looked exactly as Lily had described McGonagall to her in her letters. She was standing next to Dumbledore discussing something. Luckily, Sirius happened to notice that she was looking at the woman and confirmed her original thoughts. Then she excused herself from the table so that she could catch McGonagall before she headed to the room where the first years would be waiting.

It seemed that the boys hadn’t heard Jaz excuse herself though. They noticed that she wasn’t with them anymore when James turned to tell her about their plan for their first prank. They looked around and found her talking with McGonagall. Remus told them that she was probably discussing when she would be sorted with the Transfiguration professor among other things since she is a new student.

James and Sirius looked at each other and started laughing. “Wow. We were having such a good time with her on the train, we completely forgot to ask her what house she wanted to be in,” Sirius laughed.

“Yeah, but I have a feeling she will end up in Gryffindor. I can just feel it,” James comments

“Oh, you mean like you can just feel that Lily is totally in love with you?” Sirius teases James.

James starts to protest that Lily does love him, but she doesn’t know it yet. His protests are interrupted when Jasmine comes back to the table and sits between the two of them and across from Remus and Peter who were sitting on the other side of the table. “Hey guys what are we talking about?”

“Oh, nothing really,” Sirius manages to chuckle out. “Just James and his so-called feeling for things.” She gave him a confused look which only managed to make him laugh more. Jasmine looked over at James for an explanation, but it didn’t look like he had any to give so she turned to Remus. He explained what had transpired which caused Jasmine to let out a few chuckles.

McGonagall had told Jasmine that she would be sorted after all the first years got sorted. In the meantime, McGonagall had told her it was fine to sit at the Gryffindor table. She warned her not to get into too much trouble. Evidently, she had noticed that she has been sitting at the table with James and Sirius. Jasmine had just nodded and walked back to the where the boys were now sitting at the Gryffindor table. 

Jasmine didn’t have the time to tell the boys any what she had discussed with McGonagall, though. By the time Sirius had stopped laughing and Remus had explained what had happened while she was gone, the doors to the Great Hall opened once again. All conversations immediately stopped as soon as McGonagall walked in with a stool and old looking hat, which Jasmine figured was the Sorting Hat that Lily had told her about before. Behind McGonagall, all the little first years filed in. They looked so innocent.

Before the actual sorting started, the Sorting Hat began to sing its song that Jasmine would later learn happened every year. The song was usually about the four houses, the hat itself, and/or about the original founders. The boys had yet to hear the same song twice in their five years at Hogwarts, but James did mention that sometimes the hat would recycle lyrics. He wasn’t sure why, no one actually knew why. By now it was just an accepted fact about the Sorting Hat.

When the song ended, McGonagall took out a scroll and started to read off students’ names in alphabetical order by last name. To Jasmine there seemed to be a never-ending stream of first years that would walk up to the stool and put on the hat. Sometimes the hat would yell out a house immediately, sometimes it would take a little bit, but it never lasted very long. Jasmine just felt that it was taking forever because she was anxious to see what house she was going to end up in. She was hoping to be in Gryffindor with her cousin and the Marauders, but she wasn’t sure. The most that she knew about the houses was what Lily had told her, which wasn’t much. Lily knew the most about Gryffindor given that was her house. She also knew some stuff about since Severus was in that house. The other two house she didn’t say much about partially because Lily didn’t have any friends in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Plus, the subject of the other houses never really came up in their conversations or letters over the years. There was no reason to mention them, anyway. So, really all Jasmine knew about the other two houses was from what she heard the Sorting Hat just sing. Based on what the sorting hat said, she thought that she could maybe be in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, but Jasmine would just have to wait and see what the sorting hat said.

Jasmine was so wrapped up in her own thoughts about what house she would be in that she almost didn’t realize that the last first year was being sorted. Lucky for her, James had nudged her just as the hat yelled “HUFFLEPUFF.” She gave James a thankful look, before looking toward McGonagall. There was going to be an announcement about her being sorted.

Instead of McGonagall speaking like Jasmine thought, Dumbledore stood up. “Welcome, students, before we begin the usual feast, we have one more student that needs to be sorted. She comes to us from Beauxbatons Academy and will be going into her 5th year here. Once she is sorted, we shall begin with the banquet.” Collective groans could be heard from some of the hungrier students, while whispering could be heard amongst others. It was unusual for there to be a student starting at Hogwarts so late.

All the whispering and groans stopped though when McGonagall called out, “Dupont, Jasmine.”

Jasmine got up from her spot between James and Sirius, who gave her each a thumbs up before she left. She saw Lily on her way up to the stool. Lily gave her a reassuring smile and mouthed that she would be fine. As Jasmine made her way to the stool, she could feel that everyone was staring at her. It made her slightly uncomfortable, but she dealt with it. She wasn’t used to the attention, but she didn’t entirely mind it. So, in response to the eyes Jasmine knew where on her, she straightened up and smiled as she continued toward McGonagall and the Sorting Hat.

Upon reaching the professor and hat, Jasmine sat down on the stool and McGonagall placed the hat on her head. Immediately Jasmine heard a voice in her ear. “Hmm, you’re not another first year.”

_No, I’m not. I’m to be a fifth year._

“I can see that. You have a well-rounded mind here. Lots of courage. Yes, and also a creative and curious side. Hmm…”

_Please I wish to be in Gryffindor with my cousin Lily. My new friends are also there._

“I was planning on putting you there anyway. Your courage and bravery are your more prevalent traits.” Before the Jasmine could respond, the hat yelled out, “GRYFFINDOR!”

Jaz took off the hat and heard cheering from the table she had been sitting at previously. She smiled at McGonagall before heading off back to where she was sitting. She retook her seat between James and Sirius with a huge grin plastered on her face. Jasmine was so happy that she ended up in Gryffindor, so she couldn’t really help the smile plastered on her face.

Soon after she sat down the tables were filled with lots of food. The dishes were not entirely unlike the ones that she had at Beauxbatons, except at Beauxbatons Academy they served more French type dishes. At Hogwarts there seemed to be more British like dishes. Jasmine didn’t mind though. She wasn’t really a picky eater. She grabbed what she wanted to eat onto her plate and ate it all. For the remainder of the Feast, she talked and joked around with the Marauders. They were able to tell her that they wanted Jasmine’s help in pulling their first prank of the term. They didn’t tell her it was a test, though. They kept that part to themselves. Jasmine was excited at the prospect of helping them pull a prank. It was an exciting prospect for Jasmine, but she made them swear that whatever prank they came up with wouldn’t be used against Snape. She didn’t want to upset her cousin. They agreed to her terms, James and Sirius begrudgingly agreed, though.

From talking about the prank, they moved on to discussing the Marauders previous pranks at Hogwarts. Jasmine was fascinated to hear the stories. They were in the middle of one when the dessert that had appeared, vanished. Then Dumbledore stood up once again, and the hall fell silent again. He made a few announcements about not going into the forest and to be careful in these dangerous times. Then he sent them off to bed.

Jasmine wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by dangerous times. She had heard about a dark wizard rising, but not much else. She held a pretty sheltered life at Beauxbatons Academy as well as at home with her Muggle mother. She didn’t know much about the British Wizarding community aside from what she heard from Lily, who is the one who told her about this mysterious dark wizard that she had been warned about at Hogwarts. As far as Jasmine was aware, though, he was mainly making trouble in Britain and surrounding areas. She had yet to hear about anything happening in the French Wizarding Community. It seemed this dark wizard, who Lily told in a letter was calling himself the Dark Lord. Lily didn’t know much about the situation, but she didn’t like what was happening.

Jasmine was brought out her thoughts of the danger that could possibly be lying beyond the walls of Hogwarts when and arm was thrown over her shoulder. She looked over to see that Sirius had casually thrown his arm over her shoulder as he was talking to James. His action, which would have made some of the other girls at Hogwarts swoon, didn’t affect Jasmine at all. It did bring her out of her thoughts and into the conversation that James and Sirius were having. Peter was near by as well, but he was more just listening to the conversation. He wasn’t really adding much. Jasmine wasn’t sure where Remus was, so she asked the remaining Marauders, interrupting James and Sirius.

“Remus? Oh, yeah, he’s with Lily and the other prefects. It’s their job to help lead the first years to the dorm,” James explained to her. Then he resumed his conversation with Sirius as if Jasmine hadn’t interrupted them. They were discussing Quidditch, and Jasmine would have contributed to the conversation, but she didn’t know much about the sport besides the basics. She had never really gotten into it at Beauxbatons Academy. She preferred to spend her time horseback riding and music at Beauxbatons. The boys didn’t try to bring her into the conversation either though.

They talked about Quidditch the entire way to Gryffindor tower. It was like they were in their own world and Jasmine could see it. They were caught up in their own conversation and it was like Jasmine and Peter weren’t even there. The only thing that prevented them, or at least Sirius, from completely forgetting that she was there was Sirius’ arm, which was still slung over her shoulders. Jasmine wasn’t sure why he kept it there or why he put it there in the first place. She didn’t really mind it, and it kept her from losing them in the crowd of Gryffindors that were making their way to the common room. Since Jasmine didn’t know where the dorms or common room was, except that it was in a tower, she needed someone to guide her. With Lily busy with the first years, the Marauders were the only other people she knew that would help show her the way.

They reached the common room pretty quickly. Jasmine was confused a bit at first when the boys stopped in front of a painting of a fat lady. The lady in the painting ended up asking for a password which was fuddle buddle, but according to Sirius it probably wouldn’t stay that for long. The prefects would tell them the new password before it was changed though. All of this fascinated Jasmine because of how different it was to her old school.

After giving the password, the painting swung open to reveal the Gryffindor common room. James and Sirius insisted they enter first. Jasmine didn’t care, so she let them go first. Peter entered after them. Then finally Jasmine went into the common room of her new house. Upon entering the common room for the first time, Jasmine first saw James and Sirius standing there with there arms open as if displaying the room. Then James said, “Welcome to the Gryffindor common room, Jazzy!”

Jasmine giggled at their theatrics. Then she took a look good look around the common room that was decked out in red and gold. There was a fireplace that she knew she would end up falling asleep in front of at some point during the term. There some other tables and chairs scattered around the room. All and all, it looked like a regular common room that was decorated with red and gold colors.

“Well, what do you think?” Sirius asked of the girl in front of him.

“I think it is a typical common room that has been decorated in red and gold,” Jasmine told the boys unenthusiastically.

They both laughed at her comment. “Well, I suppose it pretty much is,” James chuckled out.

Before anymore could be said, Lily and Remus entered the common room with the first years in tow as well as the other prefects. Lily and Remus pointed out the dorms to the first years before they joined Jasmine, James, and Sirius, as Peter had already gone up to the dorm. They didn’t stay together for long though, as Lily pulled her cousin away from the boys once she was within reaching distance. So, Jasmine said a hasty goodbye to them with the promise that she would see them in the morning.

Lily dragged her up the stairs and into the dorm room, that she figured she would be sharing with Lily and some of Lily’s friends. In the dorm were five four-post beds each with their own deep red, velvet curtains, something that Jasmine was surprised to have. She was happy that she now had curtains on her bed, not to say that the beds at Beauxbatons weren’t heavenly, but they didn’t have curtains. These curtains would be a dangerous thing for Jasmine as she was not a morning person but a night owl. She would just have to count on Lily to make sure to wake her up in the mornings. She wished she didn’t have to rely on her cousin, but she couldn’t bring her alarm clock to Hogwarts. She had learned early on that muggle technology and magic don’t go well together. Plus, muggle technology wasn’t even allowed at Hogwarts, at least to her knowledge. She had found a way to deal with it though.

Jasmine looked at Lily who was now glaring at her, but Jasmine saw that she wasn’t that angry at her. Her eyes gave her away as Jasmine could see the happiness and excitement in them. She knew Lily was happy that they were in the same house together. This would be like how they were at home, except they had three other roommates, all of which Lily was pretty close friends with. The third girl was Mary MacDonald. The fact that Lily was close friends with the other girls put Jasmine at ease that there was less of a chance of a cat fight breaking out. That happened to Jasmine once in her second year at Beauxbatons Academy and she didn’t want a repeat of it ever again. It was a terrible day that Jasmine doesn’t like to remember.

Just as Lily was about to start the speech that she had mentally prepared, the other three girls came into the common room. They immediately spotted Lily, and each said hi to her before heading to each of their respective beds, but they stopped dead in their tracks when they noticed Jasmine sitting there. They were not expecting her to be there. Usually the fifth bed was left empty as they had the last fifth year girls’ dorm and there wasn’t enough of them to fill all of the beds in each of the dorms. Now seeing that the bed was going to actually be filled this year, the girls decided to each introduce themselves. Alice went first as she just reintroduced herself to Jasmine since they originally met at Diagon alley. Marlene was next. Then finally Mary went. Each girl was very kind to Jasmine, but they didn’t talk for long. They were all tired and knew they had to get up for classes in the morning. So, after some small talk, all five girls went and got dressed for bed, taking turns changing.

Jasmine’s last thought before heading to bed were about how much she was looking forward to the upcoming school year and the adventures that it might bring with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this will probably be the last chapter I write for a while. Classes start up again soon and I want to be in a school mindset. I can’t promise anything, but I will try to write another chapter or two when I get a break. So, until next time!
> 
> >Peace Out, Knk6700<


	4. [First week of classes and] Pranking with the Marauders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasmine starts her classes and finally gets to pull a prank that she has been wanting to pull for a while with the help of the Marauders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N This was going to be a filler chapter, but then it ended up being much longer than I thought it would be. Enjoy this long chapter.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 4: [First week of classes and] Pranking with the Marauders

The next morning, Jasmine was woken up by Lily. Once Jasmine was up and out of her bed, she saw that the rest of the girls were still asleep. She gave Lily a questioning glance to which Lily shrugged in response. Then the two girls changed into their robes. By the time they were both up and ready to go to breakfast, the other girls were awake and getting ready. They told us to go on without them and that they would meet us down in the Great Hall.

Jasmine had decided last night that she would eat breakfast with Lily after she spend most of last night with the Marauders. She felt that it was only fair, too bad the boys didn’t see it that way. Lily and Jasmine had just sat down to breakfast when Jasmine felt someone sling their arm over her shoulder. She turned and saw Sirius. Then she heard James greet them. “Good morning, Jazzy, Lily-Pad.”

Lily gave him a look of disgust before responding. “It was until you showed up Potter,” she snapped at him.

“Feisty this morning, Evans. I like it.” James smirked. All he got was a grimace in response as Lily started ignoring them. Then he took a seat next to Sirius who was sitting next to Jasmine. On Jasmine’s other side was Lily and James didn’t dare try and sit next to Lily. He wanted to live through the day. 

Jasmine turned toward James and Sirius, who’s arm was still slung across her shoulders, and spoke to them. “What are you guys doing?”

“Well, love, we are sitting down to breakfast. What does it look like we are doing?” Sirius told her.

Jasmine facepalmed. “I meant why are you sitting here?” Jasmine clarified.

“Sitting with our new best friend of course,” James told the girl as he piled food onto his plate.

Jasmine groaned. “Ugh. Guys, I know that we just met and everything, but I wanted to spend this morning with Lily, just Lily.” She emphasized the last part, but she realized it was useless. The boys were no longer paying her any attention.

Jasmine didn’t mind the Marauders sitting with them, but she knew that Lily minded, a lot. And right now, Jasmine didn’t need a pissed off Lily. She really just wanted to enjoy a nice relaxing breakfast with her cousin and only her cousin. Jasmine has been enjoying her time with the Marauders, but she felt slightly guilty about breaking her promise to Lily. Jasmine wanted to make it up to her by having breakfast with just her this morning, but the boys ruined that plan.

While the boys were immersed in their own conversations, Jasmine took the chance to whisper something to Lily. “I’m sorry, Lils. I didn’t expect that they would want to sit with me. I really just wanted to sit with you and the girls. If you want, we can get up and move or I can try to get them to leave.”

Whispering back Lily said, “No, it’s okay, Mina. I know it’s not your fault. I’m sorry too for how I acted yesterday. I don’t like that you are friends with them, but I know I went a little bit overboard yesterday. I just want to protect you Mina. You’ve been through so much already. I don’t want to see you hurt again.” Jasmine gave her a grateful smile.

Soon the other three girls joined them across the table, just as schedules were being passed out. The girls gave a sideways glance to the Marauders sitting next to Jasmine, but otherwise ignored them. As each received their schedule, they started comparing when their classes that they had were. That was when the Marauders joined back into the conversation. She heard them groan about having potions with Slytherins yet again.

“So, Jaz,” Sirius turned to face the girl. He had waited impatiently for her to finish talking about her schedule with Lily before he continued. She looked over at him and motioned for him to continue. “So, what classes are you taking this year? You know besides the required classes.” He inquired of the girl who he had once again slung his arm around.

Instead of answering his question, she handed him her timetable. She thought it would be better this way so that all the Marauders would be able to see what she was taking while she could still continue talking with Lily.

The Marauders gave Jaz back her timetable after looking at it for several minutes. Then they gave it back to her. Jasmine took it and the boys went back to their earlier conversation and she went back to her conversation with Lily.

Her and Lily agreed that they would try to sit together in charms, history of magic, and herbology. Lily told her that they should sit together in Muggle Studies, and Jasmine agreed at the time, but later on they didn’t end up sitting next to each other.

Before they could continue their discussion, Lily had checked the time and said they needed to get going if they wanted to make it to transfiguration on time. They left and the Marauders didn’t even seem to notice that they left.

As the week dragged on, Jasmine was learning just what the teachers at Hogwarts were like. Her favorite so far was Professor McGonagall. It helped that she taught one of Jasmine’s favorite subjects. It was already Wednesday. By now Jasmine had had transfigurations, potions, and history of magic, which was her least favorite. She never found history all that interesting anyway. Right now, she was on her way to her first class of Muggle studies. She was a bit nervous, but Lily had prepared her slightly for the class. That fact calmed Jasmine down a little bit but not much. She would probably be fine, but she was still worried about what this class would bring.

Jasmine walked into the classroom and immediately spotted her cousin. Her distinct red hair had her standing out among the rest of the class. Sadly, the seat next to her was already taken. Jasmine didn’t mind though. She understood that her cousin was considered popular at Hogwarts. It made sense that someone would sit next to her before she got to the classroom. Jasmine and Lily didn’t walk together because while Lily was off hanging out with Mary, Jasmine was in the library curled up with a good book. It was her favorite and she was surprised they even had it in the library. She would have taken it back to the common room to read or to read later, but Madam Pince told her it wasn’t to leave the library. Jasmine didn’t really care either way. She was just happy to be able to read the book.

So, when Jasmine saw that her cousin was already sitting next to someone, she cursed herself. She had convinced herself that she could finish the chapter she was on before she had to get to Muggle Studies. She was able to finish the chapter, but she didn’t have as much time to get to the classroom as she had wanted.

“ _Oh well._ ” Jasmine thought. Then she looked around the room for an empty seat. She spotted an open one in the back of the room. There was someone already sitting at the table, but she couldn’t tell who it was. Arriving at the table she cleared her throat to get the person’s attention before asking them something. “Is this seat taken?”

They shook their head no, so Jasmine sat down in the seat. She couldn’t see who it was or if she knew them because their face was covered by their hair. She thought she recognized their hair, but she wasn’t sure until they turned around and surprised her.

They turned around and said “Jaz, fancy seeing you here.” Sirius remarked to the girl who was now gaping at him, which was exactly the reaction he was looking for.

It didn’t take her long to get over her surprise and respond to Sirius. Her response was to hit him upside the head. “What the hell, Sirius? You could have told me that you were in this class with me and Lily. You saw my schedule, you ass.” She hit him upside the head again.

“Ow! Geez woman, you hit hard,” Sirius complained rubbing the back of his head that he was sure would develop a bruise or a bump later.

Jasmine rolled her eyes. She starting to question why she made friends with the Marauders, or at least Sirius. Jasmine didn’t get a chance to actually respond to Sirius as class started.

The class wasn’t as bad as Jasmine anticipated it would actually be, especially since Lily had caught her up a bit over them summer. She was also familiar with the Muggle world fairly well since she had been living in a muggle neighborhood her entire life. By the end of the class she was pretty engaged in the course material and was enjoying the class. She thought it was interesting learning about muggles from a wizarding perspective. It was an interesting point of view and Jasmine was glad she ended up choosing this class to take Muggle Studies, especially now that she had a friend besides Lily in the class.

After class, Jasmine made sure that Sirius didn’t leave without her. She had some questions and she was going to get answers whether he wanted to tell her them or not. She didn’t end up having to catch up to him or anything. He was waiting for her to finish gathering her stuff before they headed out of the classroom together. Sirius was expecting questions from the half-blood who knew he was a pureblood.

“Thanks for waiting for me,” Jasmine told Sirius once they were outside of the classroom.

“No problem. I assume you have tons of questions for me,” Sirius told her.

“Maybe not a ton but I do have a few.” Sirius nodded his head to her to go ahead and continue. “Well, first off, why the hell didn’t you tell me at breakfast that you were in Muggle Studies. You saw my schedule when they were first given out. Even if you didn’t tell me at breakfast yesterday after seeing my schedule, you had plenty of other opportunities to tell me.”

“I wanted to surprise you.” Sirius had a huge grin on his face. He knew she would ask that question. When he saw that Jaz was also taking muggle studies yesterday morning, he began to devise a plan in order to make sure she would sit next to him. Lily was in the class as well, so he knew he would have to make sure that someone was already sitting next to her before Jaz arrived. So, using his suave moves, he asked a girl he knew Lily was acquainted with to sit next to her. He had to make sure Jasmine sat next to him. After all, how was he supposed to surprise her if she wasn’t sitting next to him. “Plus, where’s the fun in telling you?”

Jasmine rolled her eyes in response as she decided that his answer didn’t deserve an actual response. Then she asked her second question. “So, why are you taking Muggle Studies? I didn’t expect you to be one to take the class.”

Jasmine noticed that Sirius tensed slightly before relaxing again. “Well, after Remus showed us some muggle stuff, he brought with him second year, I wanted to learn more about muggles.” That was only partially the truth. He had been more interested in muggles and their stuff after Remus brought some stuff second year, but the main reason he took the class was to spite his parents. He didn’t want to be like them, so what better way to do that then to take Muggle Studies. They were furious when they found out, but Sirius didn’t care. Sure, he got a bit injured, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. Though, when the class started, Sirius found that he enjoyed the class. Instead of just taking it that one year like he originally planned, he ended up continuing on with the class.

Lucky for Sirius, Jasmine accepted the answer with another question. “Remus is a half-blood too? I had no idea. Is his mother or his father a muggle?”

“You can ask Remus right now.” Jasmine gave him a confused look. “Look here he comes right now.”

Jasmine looked away from Sirius to see Remus Lupin walking toward them.

They called out to him since he had his head in a book. He looked up and joined them on their way to the Gryffindor Common room. Remus put away the book he was reading after Jasmine asked the question she just asked to Sirius. The two of them talked about their lives as half-bloods without Remus mentioning his furry little problem as James and Sirius liked to refer to it as. Also, Jasmine made sure not to mention what went on with her mother. They talked the entire way into the common room. The entire way, Sirius felt like a bit of a third wheel. He wasn’t a half-blood, so he didn’t have much to say on the subject. So, as the trio entered the common room and Sirius spotted James. He left the two half-bloods to keep discussing their lives and went over to his best friends to discusses some mischief they could get into before dinner.

Before Jasmine knew it, her first week at Hogwarts was over and the weekend was upon her. She was enjoying all her classes, especially Transfiguration and Music class, which are her favorites. Muggle studies is becoming one of her favorites as well. She had never thought to take it before, but it is pretty interesting to see the wizarding point of view of muggles.

Now that it was the weekend, the Marauders and Jasmine had some more time to discuss the prank they were planning to pull for the following weekend. It was Saturday morning after breakfast that they found the time to gather together in the common room to start conspiring. Jasmine didn’t want Lily knowing, so she made sure that she wasn’t going to be in the tower that morning. Right now, Lily was hanging out with Severus Snape, so Jasmine didn’t have to worry for the moment about what the Marauders and her were planning.

They were gathered around the fireplace. James and Sirius were sitting on the couch with Jasmine squeezed in between them. Remus was in an armchair to the right of Sirius and Peter was in the armchair next to James. Jasmine was the first to speak. “Okay, I don’t know how you boys have done your pranks before, but I have a ground rule.” They nodded their heads. “We are not going to pull a prank specifically meant to torment or bully other students, especially Slytherin. I don’t like some of them either guys, but it is cruel and mean to just torment them.” James and Sirius opened their mouths to protest, but Jasmine didn’t let them get in a word. “Guys, I am not a bully, and neither should you be.” The boys closed their mouths and nodded their heads guiltily.

“So, anyway, I have been thinking about prank ideas all week. I have several ideas that I think would be amazing. My favorite, though is this one.” Jasmine took out a piece of parchment that she had written her prank plan idea on it. “The only thing that I can’t figure out how to completely do is how we can do this all without being seen or heard.” She looked down at her plan and then glanced at the Marauders. They all had grins on their faces indicating that they had something in mind, so she gave them each a questioning look. Her unspoken question was answered when James ran up to the dorm the Marauders all shared. What he brought back with him amazed Jasmine.

“We’ll use this to get around. No one will be able to see us and we can do it all the night before.” James smiled proudly lifting up the invisibility cloak to display it to Jasmine.

“Is that an invisibility cloak?” Jasmine asked the boy. She was still astounded that he even had one. She had never actually seen one in real life.

“Why yes, it is, Jazzy. What else could it be?” James said before he ran back up to the dorm to put the cloak away. He didn’t need any other Gryffindor’s seeing his cloak.

Once James was back, Jasmine began to explain the rest of her plan. “Now that we have that issue sorted, here’s the plan. I got the idea after a conversation I had with Lily that reminded me of this weird American short story writer and poet named Edgar Allen Poe. He has this poem called the Raven. Have any of you heard of the poem?” She got nods from Remus and surprisingly Sirius. James was shaking his head no. And Peter wasn’t really paying much attention.

Seeing as James hadn’t heard of the poem, Jasmine explains the gist of the poem. The part that she focuses on is the parts with the raven. After explaining the poem to James, Jasmine goes back to the prank plan. “So, my idea is that the night before we transfigure some objects around the castle into ravens. Then we enchant them to only say nevermore anytime any student passes one, even us.” Before the boys could protests, Jasmine continued to explain her plan. “I’ll explain why later. Anyway, I also thought that if we have time, we could also enchant the ravens to follow any Ravenclaws that pass by one of the ravens. Although now that I think about it, we should save that for another time. Maybe we could make it eagles instead too. Maybe…” Jasmine trailed off and started mumbling to herself. She was getting lost in the ideas that were swirling around in her head. Luckily, Sirius pulled her out before she got too deep.

“Jaz? Jaz! JAZ!” Sirius shouted to the girl next to him.

Jasmine jumped. “What the hell, Sirius? You didn’t have to yell right in my ear.”

Sirius rolled her eyes in response. “Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say that your idea is brilliant, Jaz.” They grinned at girl, nodding their heads in agreement with Jasmine’s plan.

“Thanks guys. I appreciate the compliment.”

“So, when do you want to pull this prank?” James asked Jasmine.

“I was thinking we could do this all Friday night, so that it would all happen on Saturday. Saturday because that way there is less of a chance of us getting caught. That’s why we have to make sure that they still say nevermore when we pass. We only have to pass a raven each once and it has to be in front of a professor otherwise they would get suspicious. Oh, I forgot something. In order for us to definitely not get in trouble, we add a timing component to the transfigured ravens. We have the ravens transfigure back to what they originally were before we transfigured them. I say we set it for until curfew on Saturday. That way if the professors collect the ravens, all they will have left are no ravens and instead just objects,” Jasmine explained.

James, Sirius, and Peter looked at her astounded, while Remus just looked impressed. “That is an impressive plan Jaz,” Remus told her. “I thought that I was the only one who could avoid being caught with my pranks.”

She smiled at him. “Guess not, Lupin. You got some competition now.” Jasmine challenged.

“Guess I do.”

Before they could continue their conversation, James spoke up. “That is absolutely brilliant, Jazzy. You thought of everything. That is absolutely amazing. We are so doing this prank. We will have to do a bit more research about the spells we need to cast to make this happen, but we should be able to pull it off by Friday night.”

“No need to worry about research. I already know what spells we need to cast. I didn’t entirely come up with this whole idea during this past week. I had thought of other parts and pieces previously, so I know how to do that. I know how to do the spells that we need for the most part. I can teach you all whenever you are free. It can be one-on-one or all together. I don’t mind It might take some time, though. If you have time today and tomorrow, we can get it all done this weekend. Let me know by lunch. I have work I need to do right now. See you later.” Jasmine got up from the couch and went to her dorm room to grab her stuff before heading out to the library.

After she left the common room, the Marauders went up to their dorm to discuss. It was only the four of them in the room, which they were all grateful for, especially Remus. He didn’t need someone else being suspicious of why he disappeared once a month at the full moon. Once in the dorm they each sat on their beds. Sirius was the first to speak. “That girl is something else.” They all nodded their heads in agreement.

It was silent for a few minutes as they all processes what had occurred in the common room in its entirety. This time James broke the silence. “It’s a brilliant plan and if it goes as she plans, there is no way we aren’t making her a Marauder. That plan is amazing, and it is going to be hilarious. She thought of everything. I mean she even knows how to do all the spells that we need to do the prank.” Then James fell back onto his bed.

Remus was the next to speak up. “She is quite impressive. I feel like she has been thinking about pulling a prank for a while now, though. From what I have heard about Beauxbatons from Jasmine, it is a pretty strict school. She didn’t want to get kicked out, so it would seem that she didn’t pull any pranks there.”

“I’m going to agree with you Remus. She seems eager as if she hadn’t pulled a prank in a while,” Sirius said. Peter nodded in agreement. “So, what’s the plan for spending time with Jasmine to learn what we need too. Induvial or all together or are we going to do a little bit of both?”

“Well, I’m pretty busy this weekend,” Peter said.

“Same here,” said Remus. “Peter, if you aren’t busy Monday and Tuesday evening after dinner, I bet Jasmine will be able to teach both of us together.” Peter nodded his head agree with the idea.

“Okay, you two will do it together during the week and James and I will do it this weekend,” Sirius said looking at his best friend who was still lying on his bed. “Hey James, you want to start after lunch?”

“No can do, Sirius. I got to finish a bit of homework after lunch.”

“Well then, I guess it will just be me with Jasmine after lunch.” Sirius eyed his best friend suspiciously. He had a feeling that he might be up to something, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

So, at lunch the Marauders told Jasmine what time would work for them to start learning the spells they would need. James told her he would try to join her after dinner for more learning. He couldn’t promise anything though.

After lunch, they all went their separate ways. Remus, James, and Peter went in the direction of Gryffindor tower to get anything they may need. Sirius and Jasmine headed off in another direction, with Jasmine leading at first. After several minutes of seemingly just wandering around, Sirius spoke up. “So, Jaz, where are we going anyway?”

“I have no idea. I’m not really familiar with the castle yet, so if you know a place we can go where no one will disturb us, I am all ears.”

Sirius thought for a minute. There wasn’t really a great place to secretly learn these spells that he knew of, but they could just use a classroom in a remote part of the castle and then lock the door. They could use the shrieking shack, but that would lead to a lot more questions than Sirius would like. Many of those questions he wouldn’t be able to answer without betraying Remus’ trust either. So, Sirius relayed the idea of the remote empty classroom to Jasmine. She agreed that that was probably the best solution, so they headed to a far corner of the castle that Sirius knew most people didn’t go, especially on weekends.

As Jaz taught Sirius the spells and enchantment, he couldn’t help but notice how good looking she actually was. When he looked closer, he noticed the differences between Jaz and Lily. Their hair were different shades of red. Jasmine’s hair, in Sirius’ opinion, was way better looking than Lily’s. Sirius also noticed that her eyes were different as well. When Jasmine was explaining one of the spells, she looked him straight in the eyes, which gave Sirius the chance to get a good look at her eyes. When she looked at him, Sirius almost got lost in them. The only thing that stopped him from getting lost was Jasmine’s voice pulling him away.

As their learning session continued, Sirius kept noticing more and more about Jasmine, but he didn’t think anything of it. He knew she was pretty. That much about her was obvious after their first encounter. It was only natural that he would be noticing that she looked good. He is still a guy after all. He could look, but that doesn’t mean he liked Jasmine.

The time ended up flying by rather quickly. Sirius was getting the spells rather quickly, which Jasmine didn’t expect to be the case at first. After accomplishing the time spell that they would use, Jasmine said, “Wow, you are getting these spells rather quickly. I was really expecting this to take longer,”

Sirius gasped in fake offense. “How dare you miss? I will have you know that I am a very talented and brilliant wizard. I have done well in all of my classes so far.”

Jasmine giggled. “Oh, I am so sorry. How could I have been so foolish?!” Jasmine stated just as dramatically before they both fell into laughter. They composed themselves before heading off to dinner. As they walked to dinner together, they made jokes and laughed the entire way. They enjoyed their time together, Sirius a little bit more than Jasmine. He didn’t realize what that meant though.

At dinner, they met up with he other three boys, who were already there. They saved seats for them right next to James. Jasmine went to sit next to James, but he pulled Sirius into the seat before she could. Jasmine didn’t originally see that James had pulled Sirius into the seat next to him because she was greeting Remus and Peter as she sat down. When she sat down, she ended up in Sirius’ lap.

Jaz blushed, embarrassed at where she ended up sitting. “Sorry, Sirius. Didn’t realize you wanted to sit here.” Then she moved to the seat next to him.

Sirius was also blushing slightly. “No, it’s fine. I wasn’t actually planning on sitting here, but James pulled me down into the seat.” Sirius glared at his best friend. Now he was pretty sure he knew what his best friend was planning, and he wasn’t about to give in to what James wanted.

Jasmine also glared at James, who was now laughing at the whole situation. He didn’t apologize to either of them either being the arse that he is. So, in retaliation, the two of them ignored James until they were done with dinner. By the end of dinner, James was begging them to speak to him again, but he still didn’t apologize. The two silently agreed to begrudgingly talk to James again, but only if he came and worked with them on the spells for the prank. He agreed to these terms. So, after dinner, the three of them walked to the classroom that Jasmine and Sirius had been in earlier.

The boys lagged behind Jasmine, so that Jasmine was out of ear shot of what they were saying. Sirius spoke first. Quietly, he told James, “I know what you are trying to do, Potter. It’s not going to work.”

James played it off, though. “I have no idea what you are talking about, Black. I’m not doing anything.”

“Yes, you are.” Sirius told him, trying to keep his voice down so that Jasmine wouldn’t hear.

“Then, pray tell, what am I trying to do Sirius?” James asked innocently.

“You know exactly what you are doing.” Sirius glared at him.

“No, I do not, so please enlighten me.”

“Ugh, fine, Potter. You are trying to set me up with Jaz. I don’t like her like that. She is just a friend. I mean I can’t deny that she is hot, but that doesn’t mean anything. Any male with eyes can see that.” Sirius had to work really hard not to raise his voice. He was getting pretty frustrated at James right now.

“Oh, and what makes you think I’m trying to set you up with her?”

“Oh, I don’t know, the fact that you totally set it up so that it would only be us this afternoon. I know you didn’t have anything to do.”

“I’ll have you know that I did have something to do.”

“What? Bother Lily again by getting rejected by her yet again?”

“Nooo,” James said stretching out the ‘o’ in a way that gave him away.

“So, that is exactly what you were doing, but that doesn’t mean that you weren’t trying to set me and Jasmine up.”

This went back and forth for a little bit longer with James continually denying Sirius’ accusations. They both knew Sirius was right, though. It wasn’t until they were almost to the classroom that James finally relented. “Okay, fine. You’re right, Sirius, but I just have a feeling about the two of you. You would be great together. Despite your ‘reputation’ I know you’re not actually the player everyone claims that you are. Just give it a chance?”

Sirius shook his head. “No way, James. I’m not going to bring her into the hell that is my life. Plus, I don’t even like her that way, nor do I think I ever will. So, drop it.”

James didn’t get to respond as they arrived at the empty classroom. The subject was dropped as the three students entered the classroom. Not a word about it was spoken for the rest of the night. Instead, they worked on the spells and enchantments that Jasmine was teaching them. They got them fairly quickly being the talented boys that they were. They practiced spells until it was curfew because James didn’t have his invisibility cloak with him. They didn’t want to chance getting caught. They entered the common room and said good night before heading to their dorms.

The next morning after breakfast, James and Sirius went with Jasmine to learn the rest of what she needed to teach them. By the time lunch rolled around the two had the spells and enchantments down pat. They would definitely be ready.

Jasmine had taught all of them the spells and enchantments easily. They boys didn’t have too much trouble with them, well except Peter. He had a bit of trouble with some of the spells, but with a little bit of help form Jasmine and Remus he was able to get them. After they all learned what they needed to, the week seemed to drag on. To the five of them it seemed like Friday couldn’t come soon enough.

They were all relieved when Friday finally arrived. They did their best not to show their excitement in class in case it looked suspicious. They didn’t need anyone catching on to their plans before they even went through with them. It would ruin the prank before it even happened. They all agreed to meet in the common room after Remus finished his patrol rounds with Lily. That way they would have less of a chance of being caught.

Remus got back to the common room to find the boys sitting there. Jasmine was up in her dorm pretending to be asleep. She didn’t want Lily to know that she was planning on doing a prank with the Marauders. Lily would try to talk her out of it, or even go as far as jinxing her to stay in the room. Plus, Jasmine knew her cousin wouldn’t approve of her actions. So, Jasmine would sneak down to the common room after Lily was in bed.

Once they were all gathered in the common room, they set out with James invisibility cloak. The cloak was only so big though, so two of them, Remus and Jasmine, casted disillusionment charms. The charm didn’t entirely make them invisible, but it did what they needed it to.

By the end of the night, they had transfigured about 20 ravens around the castle. There were four in front of the Great Hall. There was at least one at the entrance of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms. In front of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin common rooms they put two for each. Jasmine wasn’t sure how the boys knew where all the common rooms were, but she wasn’t going to question it. They put a raven in the Gryffindor Common room. They put two in the Ravenclaw common room. They were able to solve the riddle with a combined effort. They didn’t know the passwords or how to get into the other two common rooms, so sadly they couldn’t put ravens in them. Then they put two ravens in the library at two of the tables. The last five ravens, they scattered throughout the castle randomly in placed they knew that people would be going. They didn’t want to put a raven somewhere that nowhere would be. It would be no fun that way. Then they headed back to the common room. Luckily, they didn’t have much trouble and luckily avoided Filch and Mrs. Norris. The group couldn’t wait to see how their prank went over the next morning.

The next morning, they say their prank was going completely according to plan. Anytime anyone, including them, walked by a raven would say Nevermore. It was hilarious watching the people jump after hearing the raven they were not expecting to hear speak. The best part is that the teachers seemed to suspect them, at least James and Sirius, but after seeing that the raven still said it when they passed as well, there was less suspicion on them. Some of the professors were still suspicious, though. By the end of the day, most of the ravens had been collected in a cage. The five of them knew that it was a fruitless effort. They wanted to see the professor’s faces when they realized that the cage no longer had ravens in it, but they didn’t want to chance getting in trouble after all the effort they went through to not get caught. They settled for seeing their faces the next morning at breakfast.

Breakfast Monday morning they were met with the site of some very angry professors as well as a Dumbledore that looked at them with a twinkle in his eye like he knew that they had done it. McGonagall had even come up to the four of them. She spoke mainly to James and Sirius, but she told them, “I don’t know how you did it, but that was some impressive transfiguration. I am impressed, but don’t you dare do that again unless you want detention.” They all gave her their best innocent looks in response. She gave them a tight smile before walking back to the professor’s table.

After she left the five of them smiled broadly at each other. “We did it. We actually did it. We got away with a prank.” Sirius exclaimed so that only the five of them could hear. James cheered softly as the five of them rejoiced. Then Sirius turned to Jasmine, who was again sitting next to him. “You are a brilliant witch, which is why we have decided to make you an official Marauder.”

Jasmine gaped at them in surprise that quickly wore off. “Really?! I would be honored.” They all cheered.

Lily walked up to Jasmine as they were still cheering. She tapped on her cousin’s shoulder to get her attention. “Mina, what’s with the cheering? Did they tell you about the prank they somehow successfully got away with?”

It wasn’t Jasmine who answered her though but James. “Well, Lily pad, I’ll have you know that Jazzy here just became a Marauder.”

“What?!” Lily screeched. Then she pulled her cousin away to go talk to her about this new development. She didn’t get the chance to because they had to get to class so or they would be late. Lily made Jasmine promise that they would discuss this at after dinner in their dorm room.

What happened in their dorm room after dinner, was not a secret at all. Lily’s yelling could be heard all the way down in the common room. It was mainly just Lily scolding her for making bad decisions. When Lily was finished yelling, they heard Jasmine scream back at her. Jaz told her cousin that could make her own decisions, and that she didn’t need Lily protecting her. Jasmine could take care of herself no matter what Lily thought. Then the yelling stopped. It was silent for the rest of the night.

The entire next day, the two girls refused to talk to one another until Lily finally relented after dinner. She reluctantly apologized to Jasmine about her outburst in their dorm. She was just mad that it was official that Jasmine was friends with the Marauders. She didn’t expect them to stay friends.

When they were alone, Lily even admitted to Jasmine that she was a little bit jealous about how much time she had been spending with the Marauders lately. She didn’t want to lose her best friend and cousin to the likes of James Potter and Sirius Black. Jasmine reassured her that that wouldn’t happen. And just like that they were back to being best friends and acting like sisters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note, the prank that I came up with in this chapter is not of my own creation. I got the idea from some Tumblr posts. I am not taking credit for the idea, but I thought it would be a good prank for them to pull with Jasmine’s help. Also, I am not sure if they would read Edgar Allen Poe in England or Europe in general, but I thought why not.
> 
> Dang this is a long chapter. I was not expecting it to be this long. I guess it will make up for me not posting for a while. I have a busy several weeks coming up, so I won’t have as much time to run. I am happy to have finally finished this chapter, though. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Until Next Time,
> 
> >Knk6700<


	5. The Full Moon (and Halloween)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The full moon is upon them. Will Jasmine discover Remus' secret he so desperately doesn't want her to find out?  
> Also the marauders, including Jasmine, come up with an awesome Halloween prank to pull.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m excited for this chapter. I hope it seems realistic enough. Enjoy my fellow Potterheads.

Chapter 5: The Full Moon

Jasmine had been at Hogwarts for a month now. She was thriving, easily keeping up with all of her schoolwork. She really enjoyed her music class and transfiguration, which were her favorite classes at Beauxbatons. She really enjoying Muggle Studies as well. She sat next to Sirius in the class ever since that first class. She really enjoyed talking about the class with him and sometimes Lily too.

Since Jasmine had pulled that first prank with the Marauders and became one herself, they had pulled several more, almost never getting caught. There were a few times that James and Sirius got themselves caught, but Jasmine and Remus still had not gotten caught. Peter didn’t get caught either, but sometimes he didn’t even participate in the prank. Jasmine and the other boys weren’t really sure what he was doing when he wasn’t pranking with them, but they didn’t entirely care too much. Peter could do what he wanted. They weren’t his keeper after all.

The five of them had become very close over the past month as well. The boys couldn’t imagine their group without Jasmine. It felt almost like she had always been part of their group, but in reality, it had only been over a month that they were together. It was amazing how close they all became in such a short time, but there were still secrets between them. Jasmine still hadn’t told them about how her mother and the emotional abuse, and she didn’t plan to ever tell them. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them, but she didn’t want to tell anyone except Lily.

Meanwhile, the Marauders were keeping several secrets from Jasmine. Sirius was still not planning on telling her about his hell of a home life. He didn’t want to trouble Jasmine with it, but he also didn’t think she would understand. Obviously, he didn’t know that he was wrong. While Remus was still hesitant to tell Jasmine about his fury little problem. James and Sirius tried to convince him that Jaz wouldn’t care or treat him any differently, but he didn’t want to take the chance. Then there was the fact that James, Sirius, and Peter were planning on becoming animagi, but that tied back to Remus so they couldn’t tell Jaz that without breaking Remus’ trust. They could have told her about their plan with the map that they were making, but they thought that could also lead to questions about Remus’ fury little problem as well. The boys didn’t want to take any chances. They trusted Jasmine, but some of these secrets weren’t theirs to tell.

It was now October 17th and it was a Friday, which Jasmine was so thankful for. She liked her classes, but this weekend was the first Hogsmeade weekend. Jasmine had never been to Hogsmeade, so she was excited. From what the Marauders and Lily had told her about Hogsmeade, she had the placed that she knew she wanted to stop at. She originally was planning to spend the time with Lily, but she told her she would be hanging out with Snape. Lily said that Jasmine could join them if she wanted to, but Jasmine still was leery of Snape. So, instead, she told Lily she would just spend the Hogsmeade weekend with the boys.

The weekend seemed to come and go rather quickly. Jasmine had a great time hanging out with the boys. They went to the Three Broomsticks, Zonko’s, and Honeydukes. Strangely they avoided the Shrieking Shack. Jasmine wasn’t sure why they avoided it, but she didn’t mind. She did want to see it, but she could always see it another weekend. Otherwise, Jasmine really had an amazing weekend at Hogsmeade. She was even able to sneak some of Zonko’s stuff into Hogwarts that they had bought.

By the time Sunday evening rolled around, Jasmine was tired out and hungry. She ended up eating a lot of food at dinner, something that the boys found funny. They stopped laughing when Jasmine glared at them. After dinner, the five of them headed up to Gryffindor tower, talking along the way. That’s when Jasmine said, “So, guys, I have this great prank idea that I wanted to run by you guys.” They all perked up. “But I am pretty tired right now. Can I run them by you guys tomorrow night?”

They had just entered the common room when she asked that question and the Marauders all froze up. Tomorrow night was the full moon, so Remus definitely wouldn’t be able to be there. And despite not being able to join Remus just yet, the other boys didn’t like doing anything on the night of the full moon. They used the time to do more research on becoming animagi without anyone knowing about it. They still hadn’t figured out how to do it without anyone knowing just yet. They thought Jasmine might be some help, but Remus didn’t want to tell Jasmine his secret. So, the Marauders resigned to just try and figure it out themselves.

It had been several minutes of silence between the five of them. The boys were still standing by the entrance of the common room frozen. Jasmine initially didn’t notice, but when she didn’t get a response right away, she turned around to see them frozen in place. To bring them out of their shock, Jasmine shook each of them, which scared the shit out of them.

After they were unfrozen, Jasmine dragged them over to the seats that were empty around the fireplace. They sat down and Jasmine spoke first, “So, what was that all about? I asked if you wanted to hear my prank idea tomorrow night and you all just froze up. You did this last month too around this same time.”

That last statement almost sent them all into shock again. Luckily, Sirius was able to keep himself together. “It’s just we have something that we do together, just us guys. So, we can’t hang out tomorrow night.” Then Sirius dragged the boys up to the dorm before Jasmine could protest that his excuse didn’t explain why they froze up. Jasmine just shrugged, though. She would interrogate them more in the morning at breakfast.

Unfortunately, Jasmine didn’t get the chance to interrogate any of them. She couldn’t because she had previously promised to have breakfast with Lily. When she had finished eating with Lily, Jaz went over to the boys, but they saw her coming and left. The rest of the day they avoided her, which led to her having to sit next to Lily for her Monday classes.

It really pissed Jasmine off to know that the boys were hiding something from her. It also pissed her off that they felt the need to avoid her the entire day just to avoid questions. She used her anger to try and figure out what was going on. There was no way that they were just having a boy’s night. They wouldn’t have been avoiding her if it were just that. So, that night, Jasmine went to the library with the cover that she was doing homework, but in reality, she was going to do research.

The first thing Jasmine did when she got to the library and check to see if anything significant happened around this time last month. She found out that last month on the 20th as well there was a full moon. She checked to see if there was a full moon tonight. Seeing that, Jasmine thinks about something that the boys could be hiding dealing with the full moon. Then she remembers a lesson that she had back at Beauxbatons about werewolves. She realizes that one of them is a werewolf, but she isn’t sure which one of them it is. She looks for some books about werewolves, and she finds a book that discusses the symptoms or signs of a werewolf. She checks out the book and takes it back to Gryffindor tower. 

The next morning, Jasmine walks down to the common with Lily. She happens to see the Marauders. She notices Remus first. He looks terrible, almost like he didn’t get any sleep last night. Then it dawns on Jasmine that Remus is the werewolf. ‘ _Poor Remus. He does not deserve this._ ’ Jasmine thought. ‘ _I can see why he wouldn’t want to tell me. I don’t really care that he is a werewolf, though. It isn’t his fault. Plus, he is still Remus, nothing is going to change that._ ’

Jasmine doesn’t get a chance to confront the Marauders until after her last class of the day, which was before dinner. She finds all four of them sitting in the corner of the common room discussing something. She walks right up to them, but they were so absorbed in their conversation they didn’t see her coming.

Approaching, Jasmine heard the tail end of what James was saying. “I’m just saying, I think that we could trust her, Remus.”

Remus doesn’t get the chance to respond. Instead Jasmine put her arms around James and Sirius and leans in saying, “Who can we trust with what?”

The boys all jump. “Oh, Jasmine. Didn’t see you there.” James chuckles nervously.

“So, who were you guys talking about?” Jasmine asked pretending to be clueless. She had already figured out that they were talking about her and the fact that Remus is a werewolf.

“Oh no one, Jaz,” Sirius answered with a nervous chuckle.

She eyed him suspiciously. “Are you sure?” The boys all nodded their heads. “Really? Because I’m pretty sure you were talking about me. If that’s the case, you can totally trust me. I am great at keeping secrets.” The boys only stared at her. “I’ll take your silence as a yes. So, what are you keeping from me?” Jasmine asked the stunned boys. She was having a little fun with this. She enjoyed messing with the boys.

The boys didn’t answer her, so Jasmine just stood there staring at all of them with one of her hands on her hip. She was expecting an answer even if it took until dinner time to get it out of them. The boys didn’t crack, though. Their faces, though, were hilarious, and soon Jasmine couldn’t hold in the laugh that was building in her. She burst out laughing, shocking the boys even more than they already were. They were now staring at Jasmine in confusion, which just caused her to laugh harder. It took several minutes for Jasmine to finally compose herself, but when she did, she explained herself to the boys. “Sorry about that. It’s just your faces were priceless. Oh man, you guys crack me up.” She almost started laughing again seeing them even more confused. She realized, though, that if she started laughing again the boys would start to see her as crazy. “Ok, guys. I’ve totally been messing with you this whole time. I already knew that you were talking about me when I heard what James said. I can only assume that you were talking about a secret that you are keeping, which you don’t really need to, by the way, Remus.” Jasmin looked right at Remus. “I know. You don’t have to hide it Remus. I figured it out last night.” Then Jasmine set the book she checked out from the library onto the table. It was open to the page about the symptoms of werewolves.

All four boys stared at the book Jasmine had set in front of all of them. Remus was the first to look up. He was as white as a sheet now. He was obviously frightened at this new prospect and Jasmine could tell. She knew what she had to do. “Don’t worry Remus. I’m not going to tell anyone. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t care less about it. You’re still the same Remus. This new fact isn’t going to change that fact.”

Remus sighed in relief. The James and Sirius started their ‘I told you so’s. “I knew it. I told you that Jazzy wouldn’t care about it, Remus.” The gloating from the two continued until dinner time, which was really only for several excruciating moments. Then the five of them go to dinner, with the boys glad to have the weight of one secret off of their shoulders.

After dinner, the boys pulled Jasmine into their dorm room. This wasn’t the first time that she had been in there, but she felt that this time was going to be different. Usually when she was in their dorm, she didn’t spend much time in there. She just goes in there to grab them most of the time. This time she felt she would be in there for a little while. In the dorm, the boys each sat on their beds. There were only four beds in the room, so Jasmine sat next to Sirius on his bed. Jasmine didn’t notice, but after she sat next to Sirius, James gave Sirius a wink. Sirius rolled his eyes in response as a slight blush appeared on his cheeks. The blush wasn’t very noticeable, though.

After they were all settled, James said, “So, Jazzy, you must be wondering why we have brought you here.” He was making a big show out of it.

Jasmine rolled her eyes before saying, “Yes, James. That is all that I have been thinking about.” She rolled her eyes again as she played along.

“Well, dear Jazzy, we have decided to bring you in our plan now that you know about Remus’ furry little problem.”

Glancing at Remus, Jasmine said, “Furry little problem?”

“Don’t ask. James came up with that,” Remus told the girl.

Jasmine turned back to James and motioned for him to continue. “We’ve been wanting to bring you in for a while now, especially since you have found a way to somehow keep us from getting caught when we pull our pranks,” James started off. “The only problem was we couldn’t tell you because someone ( _James glares at Remus_ ) didn’t want to tell you about his problem.” James said the last part passive aggressively. He was a bit pissed off at Remus, but he couldn’t blame him. He got it after all. James knew werewolves weren’t really accepted in the wizarding world as people. They were seen more as monsters, but Remus wasn’t like that. “So, anyway, we came up with this idea in our third year. We had been thinking about a way to help out Remus during the full moon, when the greatest idea came to us in transfiguration.”

When James said transfiguration, that’s when Jasmine realized what they were talking about. A look of absolute shock and surprise sprang to her face. She glanced at the boys, to see if her suspicions were true. James and Sirius had smug looks on their faces, while Peter sort of crawled up into a ball on his bed. Remus was looking anywhere but at Jasmine. “So, it’s true. You guys are planning to become animagi. Seriously?!”

A voice next to her answered. “That’s right, Jaz. And we already know exactly how to do it and everything. The only problem is that we have to do it without anyone knowing. We can’t let the professors know or else they would stop us for sure. Plus, we would be breaking a lot of rules, especially the ones that Dumbledore set for Remus. It would end in disaster if anyone found out. So, since you have been so helpful in preventing us from getting in trouble from our pranks, we figure you would be our best bet at figuring out how to do this without getting caught,” Sirius finished.

“Wow, just wow. Okay, well I need a few minutes to process,” Jasmine told them. Her head was spinning at the idea of becoming an animagus because if she was going to help them, there was no way she wasn’t going to become one as well. When she first learned about them, it had interested her greatly. She had even done a little more research about the subject. She just found it an interesting prospect that there were wizards that were able to turn into animals. Jasmine already knew a little about the process, but from the little that she already knew it wasn’t going to be easy to do it without anyone knowing about it. Although, Jasmine always enjoyed a challenge. This would be tough to do but Jasmine believed that she could help pull it off. She already had several ideas spinning in her head. Ignoring the ideas for the moment, she broke out of her thoughts to answer the boys. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

They boys started cheering. “Yes! I knew you would help us Jazzy!” James exclaimed. He had gotten up from his bed and walked over to Jaz to give her a bear hug.

After being released from James’ grip, Jasmine interrupted their cheering. “Hold up, guys.” The cheering stopped and they all looked at her. “I have a condition. If I am going to help you become animagi, then I’m going to become one too.”

The room interrupted in protests. “No way. It is too dangerous. There is no way that we are going to let you become an animagi,” James protested. Although he had only known Jasmine for almost 2 months, he saw her as sister. And her statement brought out that protective brotherly side of him that would come out of him, especially with Sirius.

Jasmine was offended by James statement. “If it is so dangerous, then why are you doing it? It is just as dangerous for you guys as it would be for me.” James opened his mouth to protest. “Don’t you dare say it’s different because I’m a girl. Just because I am a girl, that does not change a thing.” Jasmine was starting to get really pissed off and the boys could tell.

James started to back away from her. “Woah, Jazzy. I was just going to see that we don’t want to see you get hurt. I think I can speak for most of us by saying that you are becoming like a sister to us.” All the boys nodded their heads in agreement with James’ statement.

“That’s sweet guys, but I can handle myself,” She reassured them. She was sure she could handle a werewolf after everything else she had been through in her life. It would be more physical than what she had been through in the past, but she knew she would be able to handle it. “Anyway, there is no way I am letting you guys do something this risky without me. No offense, but you guys do some really stupid things, especially from what I have heard around and from Lily. You are going to need me to keep any of you from doing anything too stupid.” The boys started to protest. “And if you don’t let me become an animagi with you, I’ll tell Lily your plan.”

Gasps were heard from all three boys. “You wouldn’t,” James said. They couldn’t believe that she would actually do that, but after looking her in the eyes, they had no doubt that Jasmine would go through with her threat if they didn’t agree. “Fine, but you have to promise not to do anything too dangerous. I don’t think any one of us could handle it if you got seriously hurt because of this.”

“Okay. I swear I won’t do anything that could land me in the hospital wing,” Jasmine promised as she nodded her head in agreement with the terms. She felt a little bad about threatening to tell Lily about, but she knew she had to say it. They didn’t seem to want to have agreed with her condition otherwise. Jaz would have threatened to tell a teacher, but she didn’t actually want them to get in serious trouble so Lily was the next best threat she could come up with. “Okay let’s get started.” With that, they all started to plan.

* * *

It had been a little over a week since the full moon. They had already come up with an excellent plan to become animagi without anyone knowing. They planned on implementing the plan tomorrow, which was November 1st, which meant that it was currently Halloween. This was going to be Jasmine’s first Halloween at the castle. The Marauders were determined to make it a special one, which is why they had a prank they were going to pull. They had all come up with it, with Jasmine’s help, a week before the full moon. It was going to be an amazing prank. They couldn’t wait to pull it.

They planned to pull the prank during the Halloween feast. The idea had sprouted from a conversation the Marauders had with Jasmine that same week.

**_Flashback_ **

_The Marauders had just finished up some of their homework in the common room. They were waiting for Jasmine to come back from the Library so that they could discuss possible Halloween prank ideas. They would usually pull a big prank on Halloween each year as long as none of them were in detention. This year they wanted it to be really big since this was going to be Jasmine’s first Halloween in at Hogwarts._

_They had already been discussing possible prank ideas when Jasmine walked into the common room. She saw the boys right away and walked over to them. She sat down next to Sirius and asked, “What are you guys doing?”_

_“Jaz, just the girl we wanted to see,” Sirius greeted her. “We were just talking about Halloween and –“ He didn’t get to finish as Jasmine interrupted him._

_“Halloween!! Oh, I love Halloween. I did appreciate it more as child, though. In France they go all out for Halloween. When I was a child, my dad would help me make a costume so that I could go trick or treating. It was awesome. We made some of the best costumes. Although now that I think about it, he might have used a bit of magic to help.”_

_“Woah, woah, woah. Slow down there Jazzy,” James told the girl. “You just said a lot there and I have some questions.” Sirius nodded in agreement. With them being purebloods, they weren’t entirely sure what ‘trick or treating’ was._

_“Oh, sorry guys. I get a little carried away when it comes to Halloween. It’s my second favorite holiday.”_

_“Second favorite?” Sirius questioned._

_“Yeah. My favorite is Christmas, but that’s a topic for another time,” Jasmine said. “So, what are you confused about.”_

_“What is trick or treating? And why did you make costumes for it?” James questioned._

_“Oh, I guess it’s more of a muggle thing. My mother is the one who shared the tradition with my father. Anyway, trick or treating is when you get dressed up as someone or something, like Cinderella. She’s a muggle princess from a fairytale that I grew up with. You have to remember my mom was a muggle and I grew like one until I was 11 years old. I didn’t know I was a witch until them. So, anyway, you get dressed up and then you go from house to house in your costume saying trick or treat and then you get candy. I loved it so much as a kid, especially since it meant I got to spend more time with my dad.”_

_“Oh,” James and Sirius said together._

_“That’s is a brilliant idea. We should really do that here at Hogwarts.” James commented. He started to come up with an idea for the perfect Halloween prank._

_“We should!!” Jasmine exclaimed. She was so excited._

_“Ok. Calm down over there Jazzy,” James teased. “I think you just gave me a great idea for the Halloween prank we are going to pull this year._

**_End of Flashback_ **

It was from that conversation that James came up with the idea to magically put everyone, but themselves in random costumes. In order to keep from getting caught, James suggested that underneath their school robes they wear their costumes. It wasn’t the most full-proof plan they had come up with, but it made Jasmine so excited. The excitement coming from Jasmine at the prospect of this prank was all that they needed for them all to agree to the plan.

Now they were all in their dorms getting ready. They would all be wearing their costumes under their uniforms. When they did the spell that would dress everyone else up, one of them would do a spell to make their uniforms disappear. It was going to be a Halloween to remember for more reasons than one and Jasmine was excited.

They all walked down to Halloween feast together. On the way down, they went over the plan once more. Jasmine was just bursting from excitement. She had been in the Great Hall earlier, so she had seen some of the decorations already. Though, she was still excited to see what it would be like at the actual feast. Lily had told her a little bit in some of the letters she had written Jasmine in years prior, but really seeing was believing. The boys had, also, told her some stories about their previous pranks the years prior, but otherwise, she didn’t know much about the feast. There was something about being in an old castle and Halloween that just seemed so right for the holiday.

They arrived in the Great Hall. The boys let Jasmine enter first as this was her first Halloween feast. They were excited to see her reactions at just how all out in decorations Hogwarts went for the holiday. This was something the boys always looked forward to each and every year. Not only did they enjoy their annual prank, but they just loved the decorations. They looked forward to what they would be this year.

The look on Jasmine’s face when they had entered the Great Hall was just the reaction the boys were expecting. She was standing there in awe with her mouth agape. There was just so much Halloween. Jasmine was about to burst from the amount of joy she was experiencing. At Beauxbatons Academy they didn’t go as all out for Halloween as Hogwarts did. It was amazing.

Jasmine was still taking it all in as the boys steered her toward the Gryffindor table. They sat down where they would normally sit, which was in the middle of the table. It was also the best place to sit to see everyone’s reactions to the prank they were about to pull. They were planning to do the prank soon after the food appeared. They planned for Peter to create a distraction. He was the one that they knew would be least noticed doing anything. He would create a cloud of dense smoke to fill the entire hall. Then, Remus and Jasmine would cast the spells that would change everyone’s clothes, while James and Sirius banished away each of their robes so that they were all in costume.

And that is exactly what happened. The prank went off without a hitch, luckily. When all of the smoke was finally cleared, it was hard for the five of them not to laugh, though. Some of the costumes that had been randomly assigned to everyone including the professors were wearing were just ridiculous. They spotted Snape at the Slytherin table dressed in a the most ridiculous outfit ever. He was in an overly elaborated elephant costume. Lily, who was farther down the table, was luckily in a somewhat flattering costume. Jasmine assumed that was James doing somehow. She was dressed as a princess and she looked amazing. Jasmine would have to ask James how he managed to do that earlier.

The five of them had probably some of the better costumes. James was funnily dressed up as Dumbledore. He even managed to put on a grey beard while the smoke was still in the room. Then there was Peter, who was also dressed up as a Hogwarts professor. Peter managed to dress up as Professor Binns, who is a ghost. Jasmine isn’t sure how he nailed it so perfectly, but Peter looked eerily similar to the history of magic professor. Remus and Sirius chose not to dress up as Hogwarts professors. They were going to, but they each changed their minds last minute. Remus was dressed up as a librarian, so technically he could say that he was just the male version of Madam Pince, the Hogwarts librarian. Sirius on the other hand, was nothing like any of the professors. Instead, Sirius dressed up as a black dog. Jasmine had to admit he looked kind of cute as a dog. And the costume suited him perfectly. Also, based on the rumors Jasmine constantly heard about Sirius’ “conquests” it suited him based on his dating life too. Little did Jasmine know how wrong she was about that.

Jasmine’s costume looked amazing on her. She was dressed up as Daphne Blake from What’s New Scooby Doo. It had been one of her favorite shows growing up. She always like Daphne too. The only thing that prevented the costume from being completely perfect was the fact that her hair was not the right shade of red. It was a much lighter color than Daphne’s true red color. Jaz had a way to fix this, though. To remedy this, while the smoke was still in the room and after she casted the spell for the prank, she casted a spell to turn her head the exact shade of red. The boys hadn’t noticed yet, though. They were still holding back their laughter at all the different costume’s everyone was wearing. It really was an amazing prank.

When everyone had realized what had happened, not all of them were upset. Most of the Slytherins were upset, but most of the others were laughing or they just had confused looks on their face. Several of the professors thought it was funny as well, Dumbledore being one of them. He looked quite amused to see that he was not dressed up as a pirate. He was especially amused when he saw that James was dressed up as him. Overall, the prank went over better than they thought it would. No one was mad enough to figure out who did this, although they all had their suspicions that it was the marauders doing. They always pulled a Halloween prank, so it wouldn’t surprise most of them that this is was their doing.

After the laughter had settled down, the boys and Jasmine had joined in eventually, the boys all turned to their meal. That is when Sirius looked up to Jasmine to see her costume. She was the only one that hadn’t disclosed her costume before the prank. So, Sirius was curious to see what she came up with. When he saw her red hair, though, he almost chocked on the food he had just put in his mouth. That caught the attention of the others who looked at him to see what was wrong. That’s when the rest of the boys saw Jaz’s hair. They too, almost choked on food. Jasmine just had a concerned look on her face, but she was fighting the smirk she wanted to put on her face.

“Are you guys okay?” Jasmine asked after she was sure they had stopped “choking”. “Is something wrong?”

“Yeah, there’s something wrong!” Sirius exclaimed. Jasmine just looked at a him confused in response. “What the hell happened to your hair, Jaz??!!”

“What?” Jaz aske innocently. Then she grabbed her hair as if she were worried it was shorter or something terrible happened to it. “Oh, you mean the color. I obviously dyed it,” she paused for dramatic effect. The boys gasped, then she continued, “With magic of course.”

Sirius sighed in relief. This didn’t go unnoticed by James, who gave his best friend a knowing look. Before he could tease him about it, though, Sirius spoke up, “Well, I’m glad it’s only temporary. I don’t need to get you more confused with Evans.” It is joke to which Jaz laughs at.

For the rest of the night, they joke about Jaz hair as well as other stuff. They discuss a bunch of random things, but then the topic of pranks comes up. That topic lead into a different thing that the boys had been working on, a map. They explained the whole idea behind the map to Jaz. They told her about how it would be a map of Hogwarts that would help them to not get into even more trouble than they already do. Jasmine loved the idea. She told them it would take some difficult magic to accomplish what they were talking about, but they already knew this. They had already started working on the map after all. Jaz wanted in, though, which they readily agreed to. They were happy to include her in on this. Their night ended with them all talking about the map the boys had dubbed the _Marauders Map_ , which Jaz just thought was so humbling. It was still a good name. Jasmine fell asleep thinking about the map and the endless possibilities that it could mean for them and their pranks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so originally, I had completed this chapter like 2 weeks ago, but it was much shorter than the other 4 chapters. I was disappointed by that, so I added the Halloween stuff. The original story was only about 3370 words, while this is 5500+ words. I am very proud of myself. I will try to write another chapter soon, since my next class doesn’t start until Monday, but I have other things I still have to do so no promises about another chapter. I hope this one will tide you all over in the meantime. Please Comment, review, etc. I appreciate knowing what you readers think of my story.
> 
> >Peace out, Knk6700<


	6. Christmas Holidays with Lily

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What will Jasmine's first Christmas be like? Is there something that Lily knows about Sirius that Jasmine doesn't know?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it. Another chapter! I don’t have much else to say except I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 6: Christmas Holidays with Lily

It had been over a month since their Halloween prank. In that time, Jasmine was finally able to help the boys and herself become animagi. They had actually been animagi for about a week at this point. Since there hadn’t been a full moon yet, they hadn’t gone out as their animagi yet. They did test out their animagi within the Shrieking Shack, though. It was the only place that any of them could possibly think of where no one would see them or anything. There was no chance they would get caught within the Shrieking Shack.

Remus, the only one not an animagi, stood in the corner of the room and watched the transform. It was hard for him to be in the shack and not think about the other times he had been in there. Those thoughts were driven out of his mind as he watched his friends try to transform. It was hilarious watching James and Sirius. It was like they were trying to push something out of them. Just the looks on their faces were enough to send Remus into hysterics. They all turned to him, only to see him fall to the floor in laughter. It was during that time that Peter, surprisingly, transformed into a rat. No one noticed, though, because they were all staring at Remus like he was crazy. It wasn’t until Remus had finally settled down that they noticed that Peter was no longer behind them. They all looked around trying to find out what happened to their friend. Then Jaz noticed the rat sitting on the floor.

“Um…, guys,” Jaz started a bit shakily. The turned to look at her. “I think I found Peter.” She pointed to the rat sitting on the floor. They were astonished it was Peter who was the first to transform first. That quickly wore off and was replaced with James’ and Sirius’ laughter. They quickly shut up when they saw Jaz glare at them. They didn’t want to get on her bad side.

By the end of the night they were all able to transform into their animagi. After Peter was able to turn himself back, James managed to transform. He transformed into a stag, which was ridiculously awesome to Jasmine. Soon after James was Sirius. Sirius transformed into a big black dog, which Jaz found hilarious. She broke out into laughter, which only caused the boys minus Sirius to give her confused looks. The black dog that was Sirius just cocked his head at her, which caused her to laugh more, so Sirius transformed back.

“What the hell is wrong with you Jaz? What is so funny that my animagi is a black dog?” Sirius questioned the girl. It frustrated him that this cute girl thought his animagi is so funny. It shouldn’t be funny.

Before Sirius could get anymore pissed off at Jasmine, Jasmine was able to calm down enough to answer his questions. “Sorry. I just couldn’t help myself. The irony was just too much.” The boys stared at her, confused. Jasmine groaned. “Ugh! Guys, don’t you remember, Sirius dressed up as a black dog for Halloween. There’s also the fact that, uh, his name means dog black, but I think the real irony is his Halloween costume.” The boys finally got it and James broke out laughing. Sirius gave a couple chuckles. He did enjoy the irony of it all after all. The other two boys joined in with the laughing. It was then, while the boys were all laughing, that Jasmine transformed. The boys, who were not looking at her when she transformed, turned to Jasmine to see why she wasn’t laughing with them. In her place, was a horse. She was a beautiful reddish-brown horse. He mane and tail were lighter in color, almost like a blondish brown. She was gorgeous, for a horse. Then she transformed back.

They practiced transforming a few more times to make sure they had it down before they left the shack. They would have spoken on the way up to the castle about their transformations on the way up to the castle, but they didn’t want to chance being caught. It was way passed curfew and if anyone caught them, it would ruin everything. They took some of the secret passages they knew of to get pack to the tower and then said goodnight in the common room. The four animagi were super excited at what they had accomplished. The lone werewolf was just touched at what great friends he had found.

* * *

They had been able to complete the transformations at the beginning of December, specifically the first week. They would have gone out with as their animagi, but they didn’t want Remus to feel left out. Instead, for the rest of the term, the group started to come up with nicknames for each other. It was James’ and Sirius’ idea. They had said “Well, we already call ourselves the marauders, so we should definitely have nicknames for each other now.” So began the ridiculous nicknames.

By the last week of term, though, they had come up with their nicknames. They had decided on Remus’ first since it was pretty obvious. Plus, Sirius, as well as James, had been thinking of nicknames for him ever since they found out he was a werewolf. So, Remus would now be Moony. Jasmine thought it was a bit obvious, but she still liked the nickname. The rest of their nicknames were harder to come up with. They went through a lot of different ones, some of which were just ridiculous (“ _No, James, we are not calling Peter ‘Ratty’,” Jasmine had told him. “That is just stupid and way too obvious.” Then she hit him upside the head._ ). James ended up settling for Prongs, because since he was a stag and his antlers. Sirius’ nickname came from Jasmine’s suggestion. She thought Padfoot was pretty clever. Peter’s nickname ended up being Wormtail, which is pretty self-explanatory. Jasmine’s was the hardest to come up with. She was pretty picky with her nickname. Finally, though, Sirius came up with the perfect name, Mare. It was so clever and yet not to obvious. When Sirius had suggested it, Jasmine had loved it so much that she hugged him. As Sirius hugged her back, the boys all say the blush that had appeared on his cheeks, which they teased him about later. His response was to ignore them all and deny any accusations about him having feelings for Jaz at all. The boys weren’t convinced, but they did say they would drop it after the term was over.

Now it was the last week of term, and Jaz was kind of disappointed. It wasn’t that she wasn’t looking forward to the break with Lily, but she usually would get disappointed and sad toward the end of term. It was mainly because at Beauxbatons she would stay at school for the break. She would have to say goodbye to most of her friends as they went home for the holidays. They would sometimes question why she didn’t go home for the holidays, but she would usually dismiss their question with a lame excuse about her mother being super busy. The real reason was that Jaz didn’t want to go home to see her mother. She couldn’t deal with the emotional abuse she knew would happen if she went home. She could deal with it over the summer holiday, but Christmas was a different story. Before her father did, Jaz felt like Christmas was about family and happy times. So, after her first Christmas without her father, she found out that her mother did not make it feel like that. Instead her mother would just criticize her the entire time she was home. After that, Jasmine never went home for the break. She still wanted to associate Christmas, her favorite holiday, with the love and happiness she used to feel.

So, as the term winded down, Jaz couldn’t help but think about her parents, which only made her sad. She wasn’t being very subtle about it, so the marauders noticed the change in her mood. Lily noticed as well. Lily knew she just needed space. Jasmine would eventually come and talk to her, especially since Lily knew everything that Jasmine still hadn’t told the marauders. That fact gave Lily a bit of hope that they wouldn’t get as close as they could be if they didn’t have any secrets, but Lily didn’t understand why she hadn’t told them yet. It wasn’t like they would be super supportive of her and what happened. Lily wasn’t sure what was holding her back, but she didn’t question it just in case she ended up telling them.

As Lily waited for her cousin to come to her on her own, the boys were hatching a plan to cheer up Jaz. They couldn’t understand why she was so down lately, and she wouldn’t tell them what was wrong either. They had tried several times, mainly James and Sirius, but she would always brush them off saying that she was fine.

It didn’t take them long to come up with a great plan. They would just have to find Jaz to implement it. Luckily, they found her in the common room.

“Hey, Jazzy.” James refused to call her Mare, even though she called him Prongs all the time. “Just the girl we were looking for

Jaz looked up at the boy. “Yes, Prongsy? What’s up?” Then she glanced at the rest of the marauders.

James groaned. He hated that nickname. “Well, we have a surprise for you.” She raised an eyebrow at them as if to ask _Oh really._ “Yep, but you need to come with us. It’s in the Great Hall.”

Jaz just looked at them. She made no attempt to get up from her spot. “Come on, Mare,” Sirius pleaded. “You are going to be going to the Great Hall anyway. It is almost dinner time.” Jasmine glanced at the time and saw that it was dinner time, so she relented. She put the book that she had been reading away and went with the boys to the Great Hall.

Sitting down at the Gryffindor table Jasmine asked, “So, what is this surprise?” She was actually pretty curious to see what they had planned. It was at that moment that a Slytherin happened to enter the Great Hall, but not just any Slytherin. It just so happened to be Snivellus Snape. As he walked in, a bucket of water appeared out of nowhere and dumped on him. The boys all started laughing, though it was more obvious that James and Sirius were laughing rather than Remus and Peter. Jasmine didn’t laugh, but a smile did appear on her face, which the boys took as mission accomplished.

“That was the surprise?” Jasmine questioned.

“Yep,” Sirius said popping the ‘p’. “Though, we didn’t intentionally set for it to dump on Snivellus, only a Slytherin. It was just really bad timing on his part.” Then Sirius started laughing again. Jasmine even gave a few chuckles at the terrible timing that Snape had. 

The marauders plan seemed to have worked. For the rest of their last week of term, Jasmine was acting more like her regular self. It hadn’t actually been them, though. Jaz had finally gone to Lily when their dorm room was empty and talked with her. They had talked and Jaz had cried a bit, but afterward, Jaz was able to see the upsides of the end of term. She was finally going to get that sense of happiness and family that had been missing from her favorite holiday since her father died. She would also be spending Christmas with her favorite cousin, and lucky for both of them, Petunia decided to not come home for Christmas this year. It was really looking up.

So, by the end of term, Jaz was actually excited that she didn’t have to stay at school over the holidays. She was also excited to see the look on Lily’s face when she saw what Jaz had gotten her. She wished she could see the boys’ reactions as well, but that would be for another time.

Since Jaz didn’t know of another way to get their presents to them during the break, Jaz gave each of the marauders their wrapped Christmas presents on the train. She made them all promise that they wouldn’t open them until Christmas, which they all readily agreed to. Jaz could really be scary when she wanted to.

After giving them their presents, the conversation turned to their Christmas plans. “So, just curious what is everyone’s Christmas plans?” Jasmine asked. “I know you all know I will be spending my Christmas with Lily.”

Peter was the first to respond. “My parents and I are going to go visit family out of the country like we do every year.” Jasmine nodded her head and turned to the other three

Remus was the next. “I'm going to have a nice quiet Christmas at home.”

“Sounds nice.” Jaz smiled and turned to the other two. Sirius was leaning back in his seat not looking at Jasmine and James was grinning at her.

Sirius looked distracted, so James went next. “Well, Sirius and I have an amazing Christmas planned together.”

“Sirius is spending Christmas with you, James?” A flash of fear sprung upon Sirius’ face, but it was gone before Jasmine ever saw it.

“That’s right, Mare.” Sirius answered, using Jaz’s new nickname. He was really the only one who called her it, but she didn’t really mind. She kind of liked having a nickname only Sirius called her. “I’m going to be spending Christmas with my best friend. We’ve been doing this for years, so why stop now.”

Jasmine accepted the answer, nodding. The boys were basically brothers in everything but blood, like how she and Lily were basically sisters.

The conversation moved on to other things, but Jasmine wasn’t really paying much attention. She was lost in thought about Sirius’ Christmas plans to stay with the Potters. “ _I wonder why he isn’t going home._ ” Jasmine pondered in her head. “ _What could be so wrong with his family that he doesn’t want to stay there for Christmas?_ ” Jasmine would have asked, but she feared that somehow it would lead to questions about her and the Christmases that she had before Beauxbatons Academy. Those types of questions, Jasmine wasn’t prepared to answer, and she didn’t know if would ever be able to answer them.

Realizing the dark path that her thoughts were about to drag her down, she broke out of them and joined in the conversation the Marauders were having about their favorite Christmas presents that they have gotten.

Halfway through the train ride back to the platform, Lily came by to grab Jasmine. This time it wasn’t force. Jasmine had agreed previously that she would spend the first half the train ride with the Marauders and other half with Lily and the girls. It would make it easier that way since she was going to be going home with Lily anyway. It just made sense. So, Jaz said goodbye to the Marauders, wishing each of them a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year before heading off with Lily.

While on the way to the compartment that Lily’s friends were in, Jasmine asked her cousin, “Hey, do you know why Sirius is spending Christmas with James instead of going home?”

“I have no idea. Why would I know?” The look on Lily’s face said otherwise though. Jaz could see that she knew something about Sirius’ homelife that she didn’t. Jasmine wasn’t sure why Lily would know such a thing given that she hated the boys. Jasmine cold also see on Lily’s face that she wasn’t going to tell her what she knew, which meant that if she really wanted to know, she would have to ask Sirius himself. Jasmine figured that wouldn’t happen though, at least not anytime soon or maybe even ever. She didn’t know. So, she dropped the subject.

Meanwhile, while Jasmine was stuck in her thoughts, Lily was thinking about a late last year when Sirius found her crying in the Owlery.

**_Flashback_ **

_It was the last week of classes, the week before exams when Lily had somehow received a letter from Petunia. Her sister once again told her that she was a freak as well as several other mean things. That part of the letter wasn’t what made Lily cry though. Petunia had been calling her names since she was 10-11ish years old. By now Lily was used to her sister’s name calling. The worst part of the letter was that Tunnie told Lily that she didn’t want to have any part of her. Petunia went as far as to say that Lily wasn’t her sister anymore. That hurt Lily so much._

_Lily wanted to write a response back to her sister wanting an explanation for why she suddenly didn’t want to be her sister, but when she went to the Owlery, Lily broke down into tears. Which is how she ended up in the Owlery, crying her eyes out. It was then that Sirius had shown up. He had been heading to the Library to write a letter to his parents. They had sent him another letter telling him that he better be dropping Muggle Studies as an elective and all this other stuff about how he was just a selfish brat. It had pissed him off, so he was going to write them a nasty letter in response. He knew that he probably shouldn’t respond, especially since he knew what they would do to him after he got home. He was just so pissed off that he couldn’t just brush this off like some of the other letters they had sent throughout the year._

_All of those thought vanished from his mind, though, when he saw Lily Evans, the girl his best friend was in love with, sitting on the floor of the owlery crying as she clutched some parchment in her hands. Sirius was tempted to just back out of the Owlery and get James, but he thought better of it. Also, his compassion and slight curiosity got the better of him. “Evans?” He asked gently._

_Lily looked up and stared at the boy in front of her. She immediately stopped crying and started brushing the tears away after seeing Sirius standing there. “What do you want Black?” The venom in her voice obvious._

_“Well, I was coming to write a letter, but then I saw you crying. What’s the matter?” Sirius did his best to sound concerned. He was never great at the whole comfort thing. He never knew what to say or if what he was saying was the right thing. He usually left the comforting to James, who was surprisingly good at it._

_“It’s nothing, so mind your own business Black,” Lily spit back._

_“It can’t be nothing if you were crying, Evans. I don’t think in the 4 years that I’ve known you that I’ve ever seen you cry.”_

_Lily could see that Sirius was trying. And she really wanted to tell someone about the letter. She didn’t necessarily want to tell Black, but in her moment of weakness she told him everything. She even handed him the letter to read. It was still clutched in her hand._

_Sirius was a great listener. He listed to everything Lily told him as well as read the entire letter that she was sent from her sister. As Sirius read the letter, Lily started sobbing again. Hearing her cries, Sirius finished the letter quickly before pulling the redhead into a hug. As Lily sobbed into Sirius, he couldn’t help but about the similarities between their home lives. It was during this thought process that Sirius concluded that he could trust Lily enough to tell her about his home life. He thought that maybe it would make her feel better to know that she wasn’t entirely alone._

_Once Lily calmed down enough to hear Sirius, he told her, “Evans, I know it may feel like you are alone right now. That you don’t have anyone to talk to about this or anyone that can relate to what you are going through but you’re wrong.” Lily looked up at Sirius. They were now both sitting in the corner of the Owlery. Sirius has her pulled into a side hug._

_Lily gave Sirius a confused look. “How do you know that there is anyone that could even possibly relate to what I am going through right now?”_

_Sirius took as deep breath before answering. He could trust Lily and he knew that he could. “Well, because I know what you are going through.” Lily gasped, but that was the only response Sirius got. He figured he should elaborate. “Well, it’s not my sister, since I don’t have one, and it isn’t really my brother even though he is in Slytherin and I hardly ever see him. It’s actually my parents. I have gotten so many letters like yours, Lily, ever since I was sorted into Gryffindor. It really hurt at first what they said, but now it just pisses me off. Which really doesn’t help matters because then…” Sirius trailed off. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell Lily that part of his home life. He hadn’t even really told James completely about what went on at home. Sure, James knew about how his Parents hated him, but he didn't know about the abuse. Sirius would eventually tell James, but he hadn’t found the right time._

_Sirius was pulled out of his internal abuse by the redhead sitting next to him. “Um, Sirius, are you- are you being abused?” Lily asked quietly. Sirius stared at her in shocked silence, which only confirmed Lily’s suspicions. “I’m so sorry Sirius!” Lily pulled the boy into a hug. Sirius hugged her back and cried a bit._

_For the next hour until dinner, the two of them sat in the corner of the Owlery. They each cried and comforted each other. By the time it was dinner time, both had agreed to never speak of the event with anyone. This would be a one-time thing, but they both knew that if they really needed to talk to someone, the other was willing to listen._

**_End of Flashback_ **

After that moment, Lily went right back to hating the boys, but she never forgot what Sirius had told her. It still didn’t excuse his actions, though. He was still a bully and although she did feel bad for him, she wasn’t going to stop hating him.

Lily didn’t get a chance to think any more about the moment because they arrived at the compartment that Lily’s friends were currently occupying. All thoughts of the moment left her, until they were almost at Platform 9 ¾ when Jasmine asked, “Lils, is Petunia going to be spending Christmas with us?”

Lily shook her head. “No, I think she’s too busy with that boyfriend of hers to even bother coming home.” Thinking about Petunia only managed to bring up the memory that she had thought about earlier.

The rest of the girls knew about Lily’s sister, but they didn’t know how badly the girl treated their friend. The only one in the compartment that knew was Jasmine. Lily had told her about it several times in her letters.

Soon they arrived at the station. The girls all said their goodbyes on the platform, each promising to write them over the break. Then they all headed off to find each of their respective parents.

* * *

It was now Christmas Eve, and so far, Jasmine has been immensely enjoying her break with Lily. They had gone to the park nearby a few times even though it was pretty cold outside. The girls also talked a lot. They seemed to become even closer. Jasmine was just happy to have someone to talk to about her mother. Lily was always there to comfort her cousin, which Jasmine greatly appreciated. After all, this was her first Christmas without her. Well, actually Jasmine hadn’t spent Christmas with her mother in quite a while, but this was different. Before, Jasmine always knew that her mother was there if she ever did want to come home, but now that was gone. Jasmine told Lily about this, to which Lily comforted her and told her that no matter what, Lily would always be there to have Christmas with her. That cheered Jasmine up a lot. She was glad that she had Lily in her life. She didn’t know what she would do without her.

Beside talking and such, Jasmine was able to help her aunt and uncle decorate the house for Christmas. They usually waited until Lily came home to decorate. It was better that way, and Jasmine couldn’t help but agree with that sentiment. It was always better to decorate for Christmas with the whole family. It was part of what made Christmas, well Christmas for Jasmine.

By the time they all finished decorating, the house was covered in lights as well as their Christmas tree. It was a real one, which pleased Jasmine immensely. She never understood the concept of those fake Christmas trees. How was the house supposed to spell like Christmas if the tree was fake? It just didn’t make sense to Jasmine. So, she was super excited that her aunt and uncle had gotten a real one for them to decorate. They had covered the tree with lights, tinsel, as well as popcorn they had strung. The tree had a bunch of ornaments, there were even some that the Evans had kept from Jasmine’s parents’ collection. They also hung some candy canes on the tree. By the end, Jasmine was able to step back from the tree and smile. It was beautiful and almost made Jasmine cry. She couldn’t remember the last time she had this much fun decorating a Christmas tree. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had actually helped decorate a Christmas tree.

So now it was Christmas Eve, Jasmine was bouncing from excitement. She couldn’t believe it was almost Christmas, her favorite holiday. She couldn’t wait to open all of her presents. She couldn’t wait to see what the Marauders got her because they had better have gotten something for her, or else they were going to pay when they went back to Hogwarts. Well, not really, but she would be mad that they didn’t get her anything after she got them things.

That night, Lily and Jasmine were really wound up. They were so excited for Christmas to finally be here that they could barely sleep. Instead, since neither girl was tired, they talked to pass the time. They talked about random stuff until they both eventually fell asleep.

Since the girls had been up late the night before, they didn’t get up that early the next morning. It was actually about 10 AM when then finally woke up. They were upset that Lily’s parents let them sleep in so long, but they got over that quickly when they saw the amount of presents under the tree.

They were about to head straight for the presents, but they were stopped by Mrs. Evans voice that came from the kitchen. “Dears, no presents until you girls have had something to each at least.” The girls groaned but headed toward the kitchen. They knew it was fruitless to argue with her. It would be easier to just eat breakfast and then open presents.

When they got some food in them, they went over to the living room where the Christmas tree was awaiting with tons of presents underneath of it. Lily and Jasmine set off to sort out the presents by who they were for. Jasmine and Lily had already decided that they would sit on the floor. They assumed Lily’s parents would sit on the couch, so that is where they put their presents. There wasn’t many presents for them, though.

Soon, Lily’s parents joined them. Lily directed them toward the couch. “We put your presents over there. We figured that that is where you two were going to sit.” Lily smiled as her parents took their seats on the couch.

“Thank you, girls.” Mr. Evans smiled at his daughter and Jasmine, who he had begun to see as his own daughter. “We’ll let you open up you presents first.” The girl grinned appreciatively at him. Then they ripped into their presents.

Jasmine loved all her presents. From Peter, she got some chocolate frogs. They weren’t her favorite, but it was the thought that counted. Remus got her some of her favorite sweets from Honeydukes, which she found very thoughtful. She also found it sweet that he knew what her favorite treats were from the Hogsmeade shop. James, her almost brother, got her some of her favorite prank items from Zonko’s as well as some more of her favorite sweets from Honeydukes. She would have to thank James for the prank items. She was going to make good use of them. She was excited to use them. Also, with James’ gift came a card, but Jasmine set it aside to read later. Then there was the gift she got from Sirius. It was incredibly thoughtful, and Jasmine wondered how he found it. It was a magic music book. She would later learn that he just happened to see it on the last Hogsmeade trip that happened in earlier this month.

It seemed that Sirius was paying attention when she had talked about her music class with the Marauders. Most of the time she thought they were just pretending to listen to her, but this proved it. Within the book there was a short note from Sirius. It said: _“Dear Mare, I hope you enjoy the book. Sirius.”_ It wasn’t anything special, but the thought behind the present was there.

The last present she opened was the one that she got from Lily. Lily had gotten her a framed magical photo of the two of them during one of her happiest memories with Lily. It was them together when they both found out that they were witches, which was shortly after Jasmine’s 11th birthday.

Jasmine tapped her cousin’s shoulder to thank her for such a thoughtful gift. Lily turned and saw the picture in her cousin’s hand. “You know, I just happened to find someone who knew how to make the photos magical. Luckily, they agreed to make the picture for me. I hope you like it,” Lily told her cousin. Jasmine responded by pulling her cousin into a hug.

Pulling back from the hug, Jasmine said, “Thank you, Lils. I love it. It is probably my favorite gift that I have gotten.” Then they hugged again. It was during this second notebook that Lily noticed both the magical music book as well as the cared from James that Jasmine had set aside.

Lily pulled away from the hug and said, “Oh my, Mina. Who got you the book? Is it the same person who that card is from?”

Jasmine blushed a little bit before responding. “Oh no. The book is from Sirius. The card is from James. I actually haven’t read it yet.” So, Jasmine reached over a grabbed the card. After reading it, she started laughing.

Lily being curious asked, “Well, what did the idiot say?”

“Oh nothing, just that those chocolates that you have been eating are from him.”

Lily gave a horrified look. Then she took the chocolates and threw them away in her room. Where later, when she thought Jasmine wasn’t going to see what she was doing, would take them out of the trash and stash them with the rest of her chocolate stash. Jasmine laughed silently when she saw Lily do that. Lily was never one to throw away perfectly good chocolate, though, especially since she loves it so much.

Jasmine loved her presents from the Marauders, especially the music book. She ended up reading it several times before the break was over. She was upset that she couldn’t tell them right away how much she loved her gifts, but she got over it. She would just have to tell them when they got back to Hogwarts. Overall, this was probably one of Jasmine’s favorite Christmases ever. It was just what see needed this holiday season.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter readers because this was the last of the “happier” chapters. I also hope you liked the extra Sirius-Lily friendship bit I put in there. Next chapter, shit goes down. Remember this in their 5th year and if you remember what happens during their 5th year, you will understand. Anyway, hope you enjoyed because the drama is just about to begin.
> 
> ۞Until Next Time, Knk6700۞


	7. The First of Two Incidents to Come

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius really screwed up, like really screwed up.  
> Can something good have actually come out of his screw up?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Enjoy the Drama my readers. It is sure to be an interesting chapter that I have planned. The next 1-2 chapters will also be highly drama filled. Also, 1 more note, I almost cried while writing this chapter, so be prepared.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 7: The First of Two Incidents to Come

Soon enough the Christmas break was over, and Jasmine was heading back with Lily to Hogwarts. On the train ride, Jasmine sat with Lily during the first half of the train ride this time and sat the Marauders during the second half. When Jasmine saw the marauders again, she hugged each of them. Then she proceeded to thank them all for the wonderful gifts, especially Sirius. She even told James about how Lily had thrown away the chocolates he sent and then took them out of the trash. He made a good call getting her chocolate.

After talking about Christmas and the presents they got for a bit, the marauders started to discuss and make plans for the first full moon of January. They were excited to finally be able to help Remus. They hadn’t had any opportunities to transform over the holiday break without their parents or Lily in Jasmine’s case getting suspicious. So, they were rather excited to break out their animagi forms again.

Their first time out in their animagi forms was a bit rocky. They had some trouble and at one point almost lost Remus, but they were able to keep everything together by the end of the night. They did not manage to get through the night without several scrapes and bruises. Well, some of them were a bit more serious than scrapes and bruises, but it was nothing that the four of them couldn’t handle.

Remus was so upset that he had hurt them that he almost stopped Jasmine and the boys from coming during the second full moon of the year. He didn’t manage to stop them, though. There wasn’t really a way that he could have stopped them really. Jasmine and the boys were going to come even if Remus was worried about them getting hurt. They wanted to be there for their friend.

The second time they went out at the full moon went way better than the first time. This time there were only scrapes and bruises. They were able to keep Remus from going too far away from them. They all stayed together. They were starting to get the hang of it. So, as they continued their nightly activities as animagi, they were able to get less bruises and scrapes. There were a few close calls at the beginning of their adventures that Jasmine was pissed off at the boys for even letting happen, but otherwise, the only people that got hurt were themselves.

Then, the “prank” happened. This event or incident would set off a chain reaction for the remainder of the rest of the marauders time at Hogwarts.

It was a couple of weeks before Easter Holidays that it happened. It was the night of the full moon. Jasmine had been getting some stuff ready for another night out in her animagi form in her dorm. Then Lily came in. Before Lily could see what her cousin was doing, Jasmine had managed to hide what she was doing. It was just in time too, otherwise Lily would have found out that she was planning on sneaking out tonight. If she found that out, then there would be no way that Jasmine would be able to escape the dorm room to join the boys.

Lily approached her cousin. “Hey, Mina,” Lily starts. She is giving her a puppy dog look; Jasmine knew Lily only did when she wanted something.

“Okay, what do you want Lily?”

“What makes-“ Jasmine gives Lily a hard stare. “Okay, whatever. Could you please get Potter and Black to quiet down? I can hear them all the way in the common room. I don’t know what they are yelling about, but I can’t concentrate on the book I’m reading if they keep yelling.”

Jasmine gave her cousin a curious look. _“I wonder what those two could possibly be arguing about. They hardly ever argue and if they do it’s usually over quidditch or something stupid,”_ Jasmine thought. Then to Lily she responded, “Sure, Lils. I’ll tell the morons to quiet down.” Lily gave her cousin an appreciative smile before Jasmine left the dorm.

Jasmine headed up to the boys’ dorm. As she headed that way, she couldn’t help but notice that Lily wasn’t exaggerating how loud they were. When Jaz reached the door to their dorm, she could clearly hear James say, “You are a moron. I mean I can’t believe you would do that Sirius. He could have been killed.”

Before James could continue to scold Sirius, Jasmine entered the dorm room. After hearing James say that Sirius almost got someone killed, Jaz got pissed off. She really thought she was getting through to the boys about how their bullying could really hurt someone.

When Jasmine entered the dorm, she saw that Sirius was sitting up on his bed. He had been laying down, but he heard the door slam open, so he sat up to see who it was. James, on the other hand, was standing over by Sirius looking at Jaz. He had been standing over Sirius, but he also heard the door slam open. So, now both boys were staring at Jasmine. Both boys stared at her with fear in their eyes. They hadn’t meant for her to find out, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen. The boys weren’t sure how much she had heard or knew, but the look on Jasmine’s face alone was enough to scare them both.

There were several tense moments of silence, before James nervously greeted the girl. “Hey, Jazzy. Wh-what can we d-do for you?”

Jasmine glared at him. “Why don’t you start by telling me what Sirius did?” James hesitated. “Or I can just–“ Jasmine didn’t get to finish her threat, as James spoke up.

James wasn’t as scared of ‘Jazzy’ anymore, since now he knew most of her anger was directed at Sirius. James still hesitated. He didn’t want Sirius to face Jaz’s wrath, but he knew if he didn’t tell her now, she would be even angrier later. So, before Jaz could finish her threat, he gave Sirius an apologetic look before interrupting her. “Well, um, you see Jazzy, Sirius here is a moron.” As James continued, he got more confident. “He did something really stupid that I would love to tell you about, but I really think Sirius should tell you himself.”

Jaz turned her glared to Sirius, who shrunk back a little. Jaz scared him. When the girl wanted to, she could be very scary. So, her glare scared Sirius a bit. He really didn’t want to tell her what he did, especially since he knew she would be even angrier at him. But, as she continued to glare at him, he broke. “Fine. I told Snivellus to press the knob on the Whomping Willow tonight.”

Jasmine stared at him in horror. “What?!” Then the anger reappeared in Jasmine’s voice. “SIRIUS BLACK, you did not. How could you do something so stupid?” Jasmine yelled at the boy. Before he could even respond, Jaz grabbed both boys by the arm and dragged them out of the dorm. She dragged them out of the common room. Then she proceeded to drag them all the way to the same room they had all first used to learn the spells for Jasmine’s first prank with them. It was the only place Jaz could think of as far enough away from everything that no one would hear them. She couldn’t have anyone overhearing their conversation.

They got to the room and Jaz finally let go of the boys’ arms. They fell onto the floor after she released them. The fear in James eyes had returned. He did not want to be in the middle of this. Nor did he want to be in the way of Jasmine’s wrath.

Jasmine casted several spells around the room before she turned to look at the boys. She couldn’t have them getting caught after all, especially since it was after curfew. She wanted to curse them out, but she didn’t want to get detention because of it. After casting the spells, though, Jaz managed to calm herself down enough to ask, “So, tell me everything that happened, and I mean everything.”

So, Sirius launched into the story. “Well, Snivellus had been snooping around about where Moony goes every month. He has been trying to get us expelled for months now. I just couldn’t take it anymore. So, earlier today he just happened to see Moony walking toward the Whomping Willow. So, I thought it would amusing if I told him all he had to do to follow was to prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick. He would be able to follow that way. Snivellus being who he is, just had to try it.” Sirius solemnly looked to James to finish the story.

“Well,” James started. “Sirius happened to just casually mention it to me earlier. I think he thought I would have found it amusing as well, but I didn’t. So, I ran to the Whomping Willow immediately. I had to stop Snape before he got too far down the tunnel. Anyway, I was luckily able to stop him before he reached the house. Snape did, though, see a bit of Remus as a werewolf, so he knows now.” James was staring down at his shoes. He couldn’t bare to look at Jasmine to see her reaction.

“James,” Jasmine said. There wasn’t an ounce of anger in her voice. “You saved his life. It is a good thing what you did.” Then she turned to Sirius. The anger was blazing in her eyes. They were no longer mesmerizing but instead rather frightening. “YOU! SIRIUS BLACK. I CAN NOT BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT THAT WOULD BE FUNNY. YOU COULD HAVE KILLED SNAPE. NOT ONLY THAT, YOU BETRAYED REMUS’ TRUST. I JUST CAN’T WITH YOU. I AM DONE. I AM SO ANGRY WITH YOU THAT I CAN’T EVEN WITH YOU RIGHT NOW. I AM JUST SO PISSED OFF.”

Sirius started at her in shock. He didn’t think the girl could get as angry as she was. He knew he really screwed up now. “I’m so sorry, Mare. I-“

“Don’t call me that,” Jaz threatened. Then she stormed out of the room leaving both boys to find their own way back to the tower.

Once they did arrive back at the tower, they saw Jasmine was waiting for them with Peter. By now all the Gryffindors had cleared out of the common room and were in their respective dorms, so it was Jasmine and Peter in the common room. They were sitting by the fire, just staring into it. They didn’t look up when the other two boys entered the common room.

Sirius wanted to go join them, but even he knew better than to stoke the fire that was Jasmine. He would just have to letter her cool off. So, Sirius started to head up to the common room, but was stopped. “Boys,” Jasmine said sternly. “There is one more thing that I have to say to both of you, especially you Sirius.” Figuring it better to do as Jasmine said at the moment, both boys joined Peter and Jasmine by the fire. “We will not be going out tonight, especially you Sirius.” Then Jasmine dismissed them.

Sirius normally would have protested, but after everything that had happened, he figured it was better not to. Instead, he refused to leave. He figured he should try again one more time to apologize for his actions. He couldn’t go to bed with Jaz angry at him. So, after James and Peter headed up to the dorm, Sirius moved into the seat next to Jasmine. “Mare,” He started, but then backtracked after getting a glare form Jasmine. “Jaz, um, I am really sorry. I I didn’t mean for it to-“

Jasmine interrupted him. “No, but that is just it, Black. You did mean it. You purposely told Snape information that could have gotten him killed, and you didn’t even seem to care. You only seem to care that I am pissed off at you right now.” Jasmine’s tone was quiet, and to Sirius, that was scarier than when she was yelling at him. “I just can’t right now, Black. You can stay here but I’m going up to my dorm.”

After Jasmine left, Sirius stayed in the common room for another hour. She left him with a lot to think about. _“She is right,”_ Sirius thought, _“I really don’t care that Snape almost got killed. I only thought of apologizing after Jaz found out._ ” Then it occurred to Sirius that she didn’t even call him by his first name. She had called him “Black.” That deeply upset Sirius. She had never called him that before, and Sirius really hated that Jaz had even thought to call him that. _“How am I ever going to get her to forgive me?”_

After thinking more about what Jaz had said, Sirius still wasn’t sure how he was ever going to fix their relationship. This one event had put a huge dent in their friendship, and Sirius wasn’t sure if he could actually fix the dent. He hopped he could. He really liked Jasmine, as a friend.

After an hour of thinking in the common room, Sirius miserably headed up to his dorm. There he found Peter and James already asleep, which he was thankful for. He didn’t need his friends scolding him even more. He already knew he was in for another scolding from Remus in the morning. He didn’t think that he could handle another one just yet.

Sirius had a restful night sleep. Actually, it was more like he kept trying to get to sleep, but he just couldn’t seem to get to sleep. He just kept thinking about Jasmine’s words the whole night. They kept running through his mind. The way Jasmine’s face had looked in the common room was also stuck in his mind. She had just looked so disappointed in him. It was so different from the angry face she had given to him when she was yelling at him. The look was so much worse too. The look on Jasmine’s face paired with what she told him in the common room were enough to cause Sirius to regret what he had done. It also made him feel a tad bit guilty. Sirius still felt that Snape deserved it for all the snooping that he did, but Sirius didn’t actually want him to be killed. He had only wanted to scare Snape into not snooping anymore. And deep down he knew the real reason he did it was to get back at his parents in some weird twisted way. Sure, he never liked Snape, but he really started to hate him even more when he started hanging out with the same people that he knew his younger brother was associating with. He knew those people were no good. He also knew that they were messing around with the dark arts. They were the same people his parents would have wanted him to associate with, especially if he was in Slytherin.

So, Sirius was feeling a little guilty by the time morning rolled around. He also started to come to some realizations as well. Once he had figured out one of his main reasons for doing what he did, he started regretting the “prank” more and more. He wanted to get back at his parents, but he didn’t entirely realize what he was doing when he told Snape about the knot on the tree. It was just, he had just gotten another letter from his parents which pissed him off. Then when he spotted Snape snooping again, he just couldn’t take it. It had been too much, and he just snapped.

Sirius wasn’t planning on telling any of this to Jasmine, though. He still didn’t want that girl’s pity. He never wanted pity. Plus, he just assumed she wouldn’t understand, not that James truly understood either, but that was different. James is basically his brother, while Jasmine was, well Sirius wasn’t really sure what she was other than a friend.

When morning arrived, Sirius was the first to get up. It wasn’t like he had really slept, so he figured he might as well. When James and Peter woke up and noticed that Sirius was already ready for the day, they glanced at each other. James motioned for Peter to go ahead and get ready while he would talk to Sirius.

“Hey, Padfoot,” James greeted.

“Hey, Prongs,” Sirius gave him a tired smile.

“What’s up? Why are you already ready?”

“Couldn’t sleep much last night.”

“Why?” James was concerned.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about what Jaz told me last night. Her face, too. She was so disappointed in me Prongs. I’m not even sure what to do to fix our friendship.”

James gave his best friend an understanding smile. He knew his best friend liked Jazzy way more than he was willing to admit; he just hadn’t realized it yet, so he tried to reassure him instead. “Don’t worry, Pads, I’m sure she will forgive you by the end of the day. Just give her some space. You’ll see.”

So, Sirius did just that. He gave Jasmine some space, or at least he thought he was giving her space. As the day wore on, though, it felt more like Jaz was ignoring Sirius. Like this morning. It was one of the days of the week that the Marauders and Jaz had decide she would eat breakfast and dinner with them. So, when they went to breakfast, Jaz was already sitting with Lily and the girls from her dorm. Sirius understood why she didn’t want to sit with them, though. He figured that she was still pissed off with him. Then there was the fact that as she left the Great Hall with Lily, Jasmine said hi to both James and Peter as well as Remus who arrived late as he usually did. Jaz did not say a single word to Sirius though. This continued throughout the day. Sirius even tried to talk to her several times, but she always ignored him. By the time dinner rolled around, Sirius was getting really frustrated. How was he supposed to make up to her if Jaz wouldn’t even talk to him? She acted like he wasn’t even there.

At dinner, Jasmine once again sat with Lily and the girls, which again, Sirius felt was perfectly reasonable. He got that she was mad, but did she really need to ignore him. It was already driving him mad not talking to Jaz for one day. _“Hopefully, James is right, and she will be over this by tomorrow.”_ Sirius thought while staring at her talking with Lily.

To make his day even worse, when the marauders minus Jaz got back to their dorm room, Sirius got a long scolding from Remus. He was really pissed off at Sirius for doing something so stupid. It really pissed him off that he would betray his trust like that. It was after the scolding that Sirius finally broke down and told them what he realized last night. “I’m so sorry Remus. I really didn’t think before I did it. I was just so mad.”

Remus gave him a curious look. “What? Why were you mad?”

“Well, um, I might have gotten another letter from my parents,” Sirius confessed.

“Pads! Why didn’t you tell us?” James asked surprised.

“I was going to, but then I did that whole thing with Snape and I completely forgot about it until I was thinking last night. I realized it was a strong motivation for my actions yesterday,” Sirius told them. “I don’t know why I thought that I could get back at my parents through Snape, but I did in that moment,” Sirius lied. He knew exactly why he thought that getting at Snape would be sort of like getting back at his parents, but he wasn’t about to tell them that. Luckily, they took the explanation for now. James looked a little suspicious, but they dropped the subject. Remus forgave him, but only if Sirius promised not to do anything like it again. Also, he made Sirius promise that he would tell them about any other letters before he did anything else.

Then they all headed to bed. Sirius was able to get a better night’s sleep, thankfully. He just hoped that tomorrow would be better than today.

The next morning, wasn’t any better. It seemed that James had been completely wrong. Jasmine was still mad at Sirius. Plus, she was still not talking to him. Jaz was just completely ignoring him. He would go up to Jasmine and start talking. She would, in turn, either pretend he wasn’t there or if Lily were next to her, she would ask if she heard anything. Lily would always tell Jasmine that she hadn’t heard anything. The most frustrating part was that she would still talk with James and Remus, but not nearly as much as they used to before the “prank.” The fact that she was still talking to them really pissed Sirius off. He just wanted Jaz back as a friend, but he wasn’t sure how he could get her back if she wouldn’t even look at him.

Jasmine kept ignoring Sirius. This went on for an entire week. She would sit with Lily and the girls at all her meals. Sometimes if she caught the boys in the common room, she would chat a bit with James and Remus, while still ignoring Sirius. When this happened, it made Sirius start to feel really lonely. James and Remus were still talking to him of course, but when Jaz was talking to them, it was like Sirius wasn’t even there. So, as the week progressed, he started to get more depressed. He couldn’t understand how a girl was doing this to him. Despite the rumors around Hogwarts that claimed he was some kind of ladies’ man, he wasn’t. So far, he had only snogged a couple girls, but nothing much else. He was no ladies’ man that was for sure. Never had a girl caused him to feel the way that Jasmine made him feel. When Sirius came to this conclusion, he realized that didn’t actually see Jasmine as the friend he thought she was. He concluded that James had been right at the beginning of the first term. He did like Jasmine, and not just as a friend. It was an odd realization for him, and there was no way that he was going to tell the guys. They would just tease him. So, Sirius kept this realization to himself, but he did need to do something to get Jasmine to talk tom him.

After realizing his true feelings for Jasmine, Sirius became determined to get Jasmine to talk to him. He tried everything from trying to scare her into talking to him to bothering her until she started talking to him. She didn’t budge, and it was driving Sirius mad. He even proclaimed to the boys in a very dramatic fashion that he was going mad. He was not actually going mad, but it sure felt like he was.

There was even a point where Sirius even thought about giving Jasmine the birthday gift that he had bought her during the last Hogsmeade trip. It was such an amazing find that Sirius knew Jaz would love.

**_Flashback_ **

_Sirius and James had managed to slip away from the rest of the group. They had something that they had to do without Jasmine with them. They were looking for a birthday gift for her. They knew that her birthday wasn’t until July, but Sirius had insisted that there were only so many Hogsmeade trips left. Also, it was better that they did it now. With O.W.L.s coming up at the end of the term, they were bound to get busier toward the end and forget to get Jaz anything for her birthday._

_So, the boys were strolling around Hogsmeade to find the perfect gifts for their friend. James wanted to get his newfound “sister” something special for her 16 th birthday. Sirius, on the other hand, wasn’t sure why he wanted his gift to be some meaningful and special for Jaz, but he was determined to find one. And find one he did. It was just the perfect gift for the girl. James also found something special for the girl as well, though, his gift wasn’t as amazing as Sirius’ was. James noticed this too, which is why he suspected even more than he had at the beginning of the last term, that Sirius had romantic feelings for Jasmine. James didn’t confront Sirius with his suspicions. He figured he would just let his best friend figure it out on his own. _

**_End of Flashback_ **

Find out on his own is exactly what Sirius did. So, when Sirius got out the gift that he had gotten her, James knew exactly what he was planning on doing. “Pad put that away. You got that for Jazzy for her birthday. Save it for then.”

“James, I have to do something, or she will never forgive me.”

“Just wait one more day,” James insisted. He knew Jasmine was only doing this to teach Sirius a lesson. She was going to start talking to after a week, and tomorrow the week would be up. “If she still doesn’t talk to you tomorrow, then I won’t stop you from giving her that gift.”

“Fine, Prongs. I’ll give it one more day, but no more. I’m barely holding it together anymore.”

The next morning, Sirius was slow to get ready, so the other three boys headed to breakfast without him. Sirius got to the Great Hall and was greeted by a surprise. There sitting next to James was Jasmine. The best part was that she was saving a seat for him next to her. He was so excited to see Jaz sitting with them that he almost ran to the table. Then remembered that would look very odd and draw a lot of unwanted attention to him. Therefore, instead of running, Sirius walked calmly over to the where they were all sitting. He greeted them all, greeting Jaz last. “Hey Jaz,” Sirius greeted with a big grin plastered on him face.

“Jaz?” Jasmine questioned. “What happened to my nickname, Padfoot?”

Sirius gave her an even bigger grin if that was even possible. He was leery to use the nickname again after she told him not to call her that. He didn’t want to mess things up all over again. “Just waiting for the right time to use it again, Mare,” Sirius flirted.

After breakfast, things easily fell back to normal between the five friends. They were once again hanging out like they used to before the “prank.” None of them mentioned the incident again, especially Sirius. They were even able to complete more of the map together. The only problem was that Lily was a bit upset to see that her cousin had went back to hanging out with the Marauders. It didn’t exactly excite Lily to see that, but she had noticed that Jasmine was a good influence on them. Ever since they had met Jasmine, they weren’t bullying other students as much. Well, they weren’t bullying them when Jasmine was around, which was an improvement at the least. So, Lily was upset to see her cousin hanging out with the Marauders again, but not as upset as she should have been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N And done. And I think this was actually a pretty emotional chapter. At one point I wanted to cry (I didn’t) it was so sad. I really hope I did good with this chapter, especially since I’m not sure how much time I will have to write in the upcoming weeks. I think the next time that I have a little bit of a break is around the last week of October. I’ll try to find time to write before then, but I doubt I will have much time.  
> Also, just to give you something to think about until then, the next chapter is called O.W.L.s and the Second Incident.
> 
> ۞Bye for now, Knk6700۞


	8. O.W.L.s and the Second Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James and Sirius go too far and end up with a pissed off Jasmine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another drama filled chapter.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 8: O.W.L.s and the Second Incident

It had been couple months since the first incident that the Marauders now referred to as the “prank.” And Easter break had come and gone. The “prank” was almost all but forgotten by the four boys and Jasmine by now. It didn’t matter anymore, especially with O.W.L.s coming up soon. Most of the fifth-year students were focusing on studying for those and the Marauders were no exception. Some of the Marauders (Remus) were studying more than the others but they were still studying.

Then came along an amazing assignment in Muggle Studies for them to complete over the summer. Sirius and Jasmine were sitting next to each other like they usually did in Muggle Studies. It was one of their last classes before O.W.L.s, when the professor announced an extra credit assignment. She told them that they would get extra credit over the summer if they brought something muggle in the next semester. The assignment produced a lot of chatter, and the professor allowed it since class was over anyway.

After they were dismissed from class, Sirius turned to Jasmine and asked her, “Hey, Mare. Could you help me with the assignment? I know it is only extra credit, but I really want to do it.” Sirius gave her his best puppy dog eyes. He had another reason other than his interest in muggles to do the extra credit assignment. He wanted to spend more time with Jasmine, which is no surprise since he discovered that he liked the girl.

“Sure, no problem, Pads. You’ll have to owl me when you want to do it since I still don’t have an owl.” Jasmine gave him a small smile, to which Sirius gave a big grin back in reply.

“Thanks so much, Mare. You’re the best.” He gave her a quick side hug. Then the both of them headed off back to Gryffindor Tower talking about what they could possibly bring in for the extra credit project.

Soon enough, OWLs were upon the fifth years. The stress was higher than it had been all year. It just a tense time for the students of Hogwarts, especially those that counted on these OWLs to be able to get into the career that they wanted. So really the entire week was filled with last minute studying among other things for the Marauders.

The week of OWLs seemed to fly by, though, at least for Jasmine it did. By the end of the week, Jasmine had only one more OWL, while the boys and Lily were all finished with theirs. Jasmine was pissed that they got to relax before she did, but the OWL is for music, so Jasmine didn’t mind entirely. Music was one of her absolute favorite classes after all. She knew she would do amazing on the OWL. So, at the end of the week Jasmine sat down for her music OWL super confident with her abilities to get an Outstanding on this OWL.

While Jasmine was off taking her last OWL, the boys were relaxing. Peter was off who knows where. Remus was in his room packing a few more things, and after that he had a book he was going to read. James and Sirius were out longing outside on the grounds of Hogwarts. James had nicked a snitch and was playing around with it. He and Sirius were talking, when Sirius said, “I’m bored.”

This worried James. He knew Sirius was already not looking forward to going home. He knew what would be going on with his best friend when he finally got home. So, Sirius saying he was bored meant that he would start to think about all the horrors he was going home to. To distract Sirius, James looked around for something to do. Then James spotted Severus Snape, and before he even thought twice about it, he pointed Snape out to Sirius.

What happened next, James really wasn’t all that sure of. It all happened so fast. One-minute James was just pointing out Snape, the next minute he was on the ground and gagging on pink soap bubbles. Then Lily came in to defend the boy.

“Leave him alone.” Lily’s eyes were blazing. James knew he had really done it now. “He wasn’t doing anything, and you just chose to pick on him. What the hell Potter?” She continued to berate them.

Meanwhile as Lily cursed the boys out, Snape managed to get his wand back that James had knocked out of his hand earlier. James was so focused on Lily that he didn’t notice until Snape hit him with a cutting spell. This just pissed off James the hell off, so he casted his own spell. Soon Snape was hanging upside down and his underpants were showing.

Lily comes in to defend Snape again, which causes James to release him. Before Lily can same much more, Snape says. “I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!” Hearing what her so called friend called her, Lily runs off toward the castle with tears threatening to fall. She couldn’t believe he would call her that.

While Lily ran away, James turned Snape upside down again to defend Lily’s honor. “Take it back,” James threatened. His eyes were much darker than they had been only a few minutes ago. “Or I’ll de-pants you.” He was not in a joking mood. 

During this whole thing, Sirius was off to the slide, laughing. The whole thing had been amusing. It was just what he needed right before he headed back to hell. He was so glad that he had a friend like James

Jasmine had just finished her last OWL of the year. She was so glad to finally be done. It was an amazing feeling to finally be done. She was so relieved to finally be done. She could finally relax.

After she got out of the exam, Jasmine headed straight up to Gryffindor Tower. She was excited to finally be able to relax with the boys as well as Lily before they all had to go home for the summer. She figured she would find the boys or at least Lily in the Tower. When she reached the common room and saw none of them, she headed up to her dorm to see if Lily was in there. What she found, broke Jasmine’s heart. There in the dorm room was Lily. She was lying on her bed sobbing into her pillow. Jaz hated to see her cousin cry. When she found out who made her cry, she was going to make them pay. No one made her “sister” cry without suffering the consequences of Jasmine.

Jasmine walks up to Lily’s bed and sits on the edge. Jasmine rubs circles around Lily’s back, trying her best to comfort her cousin.

Lily can feel this, so she stops her crying for a second to look who it is. She sat up and saw Jasmine, who gave her a reassuring smile. Then Lily clung to her cousin and started to cry into her shirt.

It took almost half an hour to calm down Lily enough so she could tell Jasmine what had happened and who made her cry. Lily told Jasmine everything. She even told her about the conversation she had with Severus after the incident, and how they weren’t friends anymore. By the end of the story Lily was crying again and Jasmine was furious. Some people were going to pay. Jasmine would have to do it later though. Right now, her cousin needed her. It was an hour later that Lily had stopped crying and was now asleep. Jasmine laid her down on the bed and went to pack some of her stuff that she still needed to pack.

Once Jasmine was done with that, her fury came back in full force. She grabbed her wand and headed out of the dorm room. The look on her face showed just how pissed off she was. This was not the time to mess with her. The students that she passed in the common room were just glad that she wasn’t heading for them with their anger. Some of them had some suspicion of who she was pissed off at, but no one dared to confirm their suspicion. Despite this, some of their suspicions were confirmed when she headed in the direction of the Marauders’ dorm room.

Jasmine was determined to make James and Sirius pay. She was more than just angry with them, she was furious. She couldn’t believe their stupidity. She knew they were still bullying Snape behind her back, but she thought she was getting to them about how bullying hurt other people. She couldn’t even believe Sirius either. Jaz had thought he had learned from the last time, but apparently not.

Jaz reaches the door of the Marauders’ dorm and she slams it open. She doesn’t even bother knocking. She is on a mission to make some boys pay and nothing is going to stand in her way.

Hearing the door slam open, the boys all jump at the noise. Besides Remus, who was too absorbed with his book, they all look to see who it is. Seeing Jasmine, James and Sirius smile at her. Then they both see the look on her face and immediately shrunk back. The fear of god was now put into each of them. Sirius was reminded of the “prank” again, but this time Jasmine looked even madder. They could almost see the flames in her eyes. Both boys figured it was better if they kept quiet, which was the right move for now.

After several minutes of glaring at the boys, Jasmine started yelling at them. “WHAT THEY HELL WERE YOU THINKING? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS FIND IT NECESSARY TO BULLY SNAPE? WHAT DID HE EVER DO TO YOU?” James thought now was a good time to speak up but was interrupted by Jasmine before he could get a word out. “NO DON’T ANSWER THAT BECAUSE THERE IS NO GOOD REASON TO BULLY ANYONE.”

Sirius finally spoke up to defend himself. “Hey, it was James that did all that stuff to Snivellus. It was his idea to begin with. All I said was that I was bored, and he pointed to Snivellus.” Sirius would have kept defending himself, but Jasmine’s glare shut him right up.

“Wait, wait, wait. WHAT? JAMES POTTER, WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU SUGGEST BULLYING SNAPE BECAUSE SIRIUS WAS BORED? That makes literally no sense.” Jasmine was a bit confused now. She was sure that by Sirius saying he was bored had instigated James. She wasn’t sure why it had, but she they were linked in some way. The reason why being that Lily had said that her and Severus had been minding their own business before James attacked Snape. They had both been out there for a good amount of time before the incident had occurred.

James stared at the girl. He wasn’t sure what to say. Of course, he knew exactly why Sirius being bored led to him attacking Snape, but he couldn’t betray his best friend’s trust like that. “Well, um, you see, I had to, um… uh…,” James stumbled. Then he came up with an answer. “I had to distract Sirius.”

“DISTRACT HIM FROM WHAT? WHAT COULD HE POSSIBLY NEED TO BE DISTRACTED FROM?”

Before James could stumble with his response, Sirius spoke up. “Nothing. James is just making up excuse to cover for me,” Sirius lied to the girl easily.

James stared at his best friend. _“is he really about to tell Jazzy about his home life?”_ James thought.

Then Sirius said the exact opposite of what James thought he was going to save. “I’m bored is our code for let’s prank Snivellus.” Sirius had to say something even if it was a lie. He still wasn’t about to tell Jasmine about his home life, especially now that he realized he liked her. He would rather have her be pissed off at him than to have her find out. Plus, it was as much his fault that James pranked Snape as it was James’ fault. If he hadn’t said he was bored, James wouldn’t have done anything. He couldn’t help it. He really needed a distraction from the hell that was awaiting him when he got home. Sirius didn’t think James would end up doing what he did, though, but Sirius in the end thought it was funny. Now he really didn’t think it was all that funny.

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? YOU HAVE A CODE FOR WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO BULLY SNAPE? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU BOTH? I AM SO DONE WITH BOTH OF YOU RIGHT NOW. YOU’RE ACTIONS RESULTED IN MY COUSIN IN TEARS. AND NO ONE MESSES WITH LILY WITHOUT GOING THROUGH ME FIRST.” Jasmine took a deep breath to calm down a bit before continuing. “I have plenty of reason to curse you both right here.” That is exactly what she did. She cast several curses before putting them both in body bindings. “DON’T EVEN BOTHER TALKING TO ME FOR THE REST OF TERM.” Then she left in a huff, slamming the door behind her.

Jasmine felt slightly guilty about leaving Remus to undo the curses, but they deserved it. Now Jasmine set out on a different mission. She was determined to find the other boy that had caused her cousin to shed tears. She was going to find Severus Snape today even if it took all day.

It ended up taking until dinner time. Apparently, Snape had heard that Jasmine was looking for him and that she was not happy. Several of the Slytherins that had warned him about the girl told him that she was scary mad. As Jaz had been looking for him, people were moving out of her way. They were even jumping out of the way. They also warned him about the rumors they had heard about what she did to the James and Sirius already, as well as the other rumors about Jasmine’s anger. She was not to be trifled with. It was even worse that Snape had messed with Lily.

So, Snape had been hiding out in the Slytherin common room to avoid the girl’s rampage. He knew exactly what she was like after witnessing it over the summer once. It had been a scary thing. Snape actually felt a bit bad for the person who was on the receiving end. Now that he was on the receiving end, he was actually a bit scared of what Jasmine could do to him.

By the time it was dinner time, Snape believed that the girl would have calmed down enough for him to chance venturing to dinner. He was pretty hungry. Thankfully for him, he made it to dinner without seeing the girl. Unluckily, though, the girl cornered him after dinner. He had tried to sneak out without her seeing, but evidently, she saw.

Once Jasmine had cornered Snape, she dragged him to a nearby empty classroom. From there she proceeded to scream and yell at him for making her cousin cry. “HOW THE HELL COULD YOU DO THAT SNAPE? I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HER FRIEND. I AM SO DISGUSTED WITH YOU RIGHT NOW. HOW YOU COULD EVEN USE THAT WORD, IT IS DISGUSTING.” With each word Jasmine yelled at him, Snape shrunk further back. He couldn’t help it though, she was scary. “AND I CAN’T EVEN START WITH THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE BEEN MESSING AROUND WITH THE DARK ARTS. I KNEW THERE WAS A REASON THAT I COULDN’T TRUST YOU. I WISH I HAD TOLD LILY ABOUT MY FEELING OF UNEASENESS ABOUT YOU. MAYBE THEN I WOULDN’T HAVE FOUND HER CRYING IN THE DORM EARLIER.”

Snape felt so guilty for hurting Lily. He hadn’t meant to call her a mudblood. He loved her for god’s sake. He loved her with everything, but he couldn’t try to explain this to Jasmine. She would never approve of him dating her cousin, especially now that she knew he was messing around with the dark arts. It was terrible what he did and regretted it more than anything. He even tried to make it up to Lily, but she had turned him away. Now he and Lily weren’t even friends anymore.

“One more thing before I let you go Snape,” Jasmine sneered. “DON’T YOU DARE GO ANYWHERE NEAR MY COUSIN AGAIN. I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU ANYWHERE NEAR HER AGAIN. IF I DO, THERE WILL BE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES. DON’T MAKE ME PUT THOSE INTO ACTION. I WILL END YOU.” With that last threat, Jasmine stormed out of the classroom, leaving Snape to just watch her go.

As the school year came to a close, Jasmine was still pissed off at James and Sirius. She refused to look at them let alone sit with them. She wouldn’t even acknowledge them whenever they came up to her to apologize for their actions. She would just continue to talk with whoever she was with, and more often than not she was with Lily. So, for the last days of the terms, Jasmine sat with Lily and her friends like she had when she was mad at Sirius earlier in the term. This time was worse though. She wasn’t even talking to Remus or Peter. She didn’t talk to the Marauders at all.

When the school year was finally over and they were all heading home on the train, Jasmine sat with the girls the entire way. Lily wasn’t there for the first half of the trip, having patrol on the train with Remus. While on their patrol, Remus and Lily stopped by.

“Hey, girls,” Lily greeted. “We thought we would stop by and say hi.” Lily moved to the side to show that Remus was with her. He waved at the girls, but his focus was more on Jasmine than anything. He was worried the girl would still refuse to talk to him. He was surprised though.

“Hey, Lils, Remus,” Jasmine said. Then to Remus, Jasmine apologized. “I’m sorry, Remus. I didn’t mean to leave you to fix the mess that I did to you know. I was just so pissed off that my anger blinded me. I felt bad about it afterward, but I didn’t know how to get you alone to apologize.”

“It’s fine really, Jaz.” Remus accepted her apology immediately. “They deserved it.” After that was out of the way they all chatted for a little bit more before Lily and Remus had to head back to their rounds. Before they left though, Remus told Jasmine, “I hope to see you next term.” Jasmine nodded in response and let them leave

Remus was a bit relieved to leave. He was really trying his best not to mention James and Sirius, who he knew were sulking. That was all they seemed to have been doing since the incident with Snape. They couldn’t stand not talking to Jasmine. Although, Jasmine seemed to be fine with the prospect. He could also tell that she was still pissed that they indirectly caused her cousin to cry, which Remus knew was never a good idea. It was a terrible idea to mess with Lily before Jasmine, but it was even worse now. Jaz didn’t like anyone messing with her best friend and cousin. Anyone who did was in for a whole hell of a lot of trouble.

While Remus and Lily continued their rounds, James and Sirius were indeed sulking in their compartment. It was just them in their as Peter got sick of their sulking and left. They didn’t really know where he went, nor did they really care. They were too busy sulking about Jasmine. They were sulking for different reasons though.

James was sulking at the fact that he managed to make Jasmine, the girl who was now a sister to him, mad at him. He hadn’t done something as stupid as what he had done that made Jasmine as mad as she was at him right now. There was something else that James was sulking about too. He was sulking at the fact that he had indirectly made Lily, his love, cry. He didn’t think that him bullying Snape would lead to what had happened. He didn’t know how he would ever get Lily to like him now, but that was a problem he could solve later.

The thing that worried him the most was the fact that Sirius actually covered up the fact that it had been all James’ fault. James could have tried to do something else to distract his best friend and he wish he had. Then there was the fact that Sirius would rather have Jasmine be just as pissed at him than tell her what was going on at home. Really only James and Lily, unbenounced to James, knew what really went on with Sirius and his parents. They were the only ones that knew about the abuse. Even Remus and Peter didn’t know. Those two knew that Sirius’ parents resented him after he got sorted into Gryffindor, but that was the extent of their knowledge. Sirius didn’t trust many people to know or even understand what he was going through at home. If he knew that Jasmine would understand, Sirius might have told her, but even then, he might not have even told her. Time could only tell whether he would ever tell her the truth.

Sirius was sulking about Jasmine not talking to him as well, but for a different reason. Somehow, he had managed to piss Jasmine off twice within not just a school year but a term as well. This did not bode well for him, especially since he really likes Jasmine. How was he supposed to get her to like him if he couldn’t even stop pissing her off? Also, he couldn’t even be truthful with her. If he couldn’t even tell Jaz about his parents, then what hope did he have for a relationship with her. So, Sirius decided that he wouldn’t act on his feelings until after he was able to tell Jasmine the truth about his family and what happened at home.

Then there was the fact that he wasn’t even going to be able to continuously apologize to her over the summer like he knew James would be doing via his owl. Sirius didn’t have an owl of his own. He actually shared one with his brother, Regulus. Originally the owl had been only his, but then he got sorted into Gryffindor and everything went downhill from there. His parents had all but disowned him at this point. Sirius wasn’t even sure sometimes why he still stayed but he did.

Sirius had already been dreading going home this summer knowing what was in store for him. Now, he was dreading it even more because Jaz was still going to be angry at him. He just knew that he would be thinking about her all summer, even when his parents were beating him. Sirius believed that this was going to be one of the worst summers ever for Sirius yet. Little did he know, his summer was going to be better than he anticipated it would be eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I really thought it would be longer than it turned out to be. Instead it is much shorter than all the other chapters. Oh well, though. I’ll make up for it in the next chapter. The next chapter will be super long and focused mainly on Jasmine eventually forgiving them as well as a large portion focused on Sirius. This is the summer before their 6th year.  
> Coming next: Chapter 9: Birthday Forgiveness
> 
> ۞ Until the Next Chapter, Knk6700 ۞


	9. Birthday Forgiveness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s finally summer and Jasmine is still mad at the boys. Will she finally forgive them? Also, what is going on with Sirius and his parents?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I’m going to warn you. This chapter starts out kind of happy, but man does it get heavy. I hope you all still enjoy it.
> 
> Warning: Mentions of Child abuse possible ahead.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 9: Birthday Forgiveness

The first month of summer was an interesting one for Jasmine. This was the first time ever that Jasmine was going to spend the entire summer with Lily. She wouldn’t be just seeing Lily once this summer. Instead she would be spending the entire summer with her. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, Jasmine would have to wait and see. For all Jaz knew, she could get sick of Lily by the end of the summer. Jasmine didn’t actually think she would, but time would tell.

So, throughout June, Jasmine spent all of her time with Lily. There were a few times that they were even allowed to have sleepovers with Alice, Marlene, and Mary. They usually had the sleep overs at one of the other girls houses because of the fact that the girls didn’t want Petunia to make a surprise visit home and interrupt their sleepover. They also didn’t want to risk Petunia saying something that might hurt one the other girls. It was just a chance that Lily and Jasmine were willing to take even though Petunia was rarely home anymore.

Besides all the sleepovers and spending time with Lily, Jasmine has been getting a ton of mail, mainly by owl. Most of this incessant owl mail was coming from James. Each letter was one apology after another. He just wouldn’t stop. Jasmine wasn’t necessarily surprised with the number of letters he was sending, but she was surprised that she wasn’t getting as many from Sirius. Jasmine was still getting apology letters from Sirius, but they weren’t coming everyday like James’ letters were. Jasmine found this strange, especially since she knew that Sirius had an owl. Although, Jasmine wasn’t sure if it was his parents doing of something that was stopping him. She really didn’t know much about Sirius’ home life since he rarely talked about it.

These letters, despite how often they were coming, played a role in Jasmine forgiving the boy. At first, Jasmine wouldn’t even read the letters because of how pissed off she still was. However, as the summer went on and Jaz got more letters from the boys, her anger began to fade away. By the time her birthday, July 18th, rolled around, Jasmine forgave both boys for their actions from the previous term.

With Jasmine’s birthday coming up, Jasmine wanted to ask the Marauders if they wanted to come over for her birthday. She was going to really need them there to distract her. Despite how much she loved Lily as well as her aunt and uncle, spending her birthday with them would only remind Jasmine of what happened last year on her 15th birthday. And Jasmine did not want to spend her birthday thinking of her mother. She needed a distraction, and she knew the boys could provide such a distraction

The only problem with Jasmine’s problem with Jasmine’s plan was that she didn’t know how she was going to contact all of them (She already asked her aunt and uncle for permission and they said it would be okay). It wasn’t like they had given her their addresses so that she could mail them all an invitation. Even if they did, Jasmine didn’t really think that sending the postman to James’ house or Sirius’ house was the best idea.

So, as Jasmine sat pondering how she could possibly send invitations to all the boys, another apology letter from James came. It was at that moment that an idea occurred to Jasmine. She would just ask James if she could use his owl to send the invitations.

Jasmine went and quickly found some parchment to write on. She wrote:

_James,  
Please stop sending apology letters. I forgive both you and Sirius, but it better not happen again or else.  
Anyway, I was wondering if I could borrow your owl for a few days. I don’t have any way of contacting the other Marauders and I want to invite them to come over for my birthday on the 18th of July. Of course, you are invited as well, Prongs. So, I would really appreciate it if you would just lend me your owl, just for a few days. I would really appreciate it.  
Thanks,  
Jaz_

Jasmine wrote the address at the bottom before folding the parchment up and putting it in an envelope Then she gave the envelope to James’ owl. The owl took it and flew off, Jaz suspected, back to wherever James was.

Jasmine didn’t have to wait long for a response. His owl had returned within the day with James’ response. His response said:

_Jazzy,  
Go right ahead and use my owl (by the way, his name is Merlin). He will know where to go if you tell him who the letter is for.  
Thanks for the invite. I’ll totally be there. One question, will Lily be joining us?  
Prongs _

Jasmine rolled her eyes at his question. She was thankful that James was willing to part with his owl, Merlin, for a little bit. Now she would easily be able to send a letter to the other three Marauders inviting them over. So, Jasmine quickly go to work writing out the invitations with which Jasmine made sure to mention that they didn’t have to bring any gifts for her. They were all pretty much the same, except with Sirius, Jaz made sure to say that she forgave him and James. She had written the address at the bottom of each. Then she folded each up and put them each in their own envelope. On each envelope she wrote each of the boys’ names, so she wouldn’t get confused as to which letter was for which person. By the time she finished all this, it was getting pretty late, and Jasmine didn’t want push Merlin to fly more after making the trek to her house twice in one day. Thus, Jasmine decided to send out the letters tomorrow morning.

After Jasmine sent out the letters in the morning, the responses didn’t come back as fast as James’ had. Instead they were slow to arrive. The first response that Jaz got back was from Peter. He said that he couldn’t make it because he was on vacation with his parents currently, and they were out of the country. They weren’t coming back anytime soon, either. The next response was from Remus. Remus told her that he would try to make it, but he couldn’t make any promises. He told her that he would have to check when the full moon was in July. With both responses came some chocolate frogs and some of her other favorite sweets. She assumed that they were birthday gifts for her. After these responses, that was it for the responses for a while, which disappointed Jasmine. She was hopping that Sirius would at least respond to the invitation. Little did she know, Sirius wanted to respond too, but he couldn’t.

* * *

Sirius' summer was absolute hell, until he got the invitation from Jasmine. He found it a bit strange that it was James’ owl delivering the invitations, but he was thankful, nonetheless. He was especially thankful that Merlin, the owl, knew better than to deliver the mail like the rest of the owls did. Merlin knew that he was supposed to go to the window in Sirius’ room, otherwise whatever he was carrying would be read by his parents. This usually led to him getting punished.

When Sirius read Jasmine’s invitation, he was elated that she had forgiven him. He was also absolutely sure that he would go to her place for her birthday. This worked out perfectly. Instead of figuring out a way to mail his gift to her, he would be able to give it to her in person instead. So, Sirius wrote back quickly, but when he went to give his response to Merlin, the owl was already gone. Disappointed, Sirius mad a couple of changes to his letter before folding it back up. He would just have to wait until Regulus would allow him to use the owl again.

Every day, Sirius would ask his little brother if he could use their shared owl, but Regulus didn’t say yes until the day before Jasmine’s birthday. It was cutting it close and Sirius would have to send his letter for James with the letter for Jasmine, which is exactly what he did. Then Sirius laid back on his bed and thought about tomorrow and his plan to sneak out of the house without his parents or Regulus knowing about it.

* * *

It was the day before Jaz’s birthday, and she was slightly upset that only James would be coming over to hang out for her birthday. She loved James as the brother that she never had, but she kind of wanted at least one of the other boys to have joined them, especially if it was Sirius. Sirius, though, had still not responded, so Jasmine just assumed that he wasn’t coming.

That all changed when she got a letter later that day. Lily had been with her when she got it. Jasmine really hoped that it was from Sirius, otherwise she would be very disappointed. Jasmine got so excited when she saw it was Sirius’ response finally. It said:

_Mare,  
I’m so sorry for not getting back to you sooner. It’s been busy.  
I’m so glad that you finally forgive me and James for our stupidity. I promise it won’t happen again.  
Anyway, I would love to come over for your birthday. I will be there, so see you tomorrow.  
Pads_

Jasmine was elated that he was coming over tomorrow. She was so happy that she actually started jumping up and down. During her excitement, Jasmine forgot that her cousin was with her. So, while Jasmine was jumping, Lily was staring at her with a smug smirk on her face.

Jasmine finally noticed that her cousin was still there after several minutes of jumping. She saw Lily’s smug look and stopped jumping. Then Jasmine asked, “What?” Lily didn’t budge. “Lils? What are you looking so smug about? Did I miss something?”

Lily teased her saying, “You like Black.” It wasn’t a question. Lily was stating it like it was a fact or something.

Jasmine blushed, which only further confirmed what Lily had said. “No, I don’t. I was just excited that someone else besides James was going to come over.”

That distracted Lily enough to stop with the teasing. “Wait, you invited Potter over here?!” Lily freaked out. “Mina! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I’m sorry Mina, but there is no way I am joining you guys tomorrow.”

“I figured you wouldn’t be joining us.”

Lily smiled apologetically at her cousin before she left her cousin alone. Lily had to go prepare for the boys coming over. That meant that she was going to barricade herself in hers and Jasmine’s room. There was no way she would come out except for food tomorrow until the boys left.

Meanwhile, after Jasmine got her letter, James had gotten his own letter from Sirius. It said:

_Prongs,  
I am coming over to your house early tomorrow morning. We can head over to Mare’s from there. I will have to sneak out before anyone wakes up, so expect me to be at yours pretty early.  
See you tomorrow,  
Padfoot_

James only wrote a short response to his friend acknowledging that he got the letter and that he would see Sirius tomorrow. James was happy that his best friend was going to come with him. He had been afraid that Sirius wasn’t going to come or that his parents had somehow intercepted Jasmine’s original invitation when he didn’t get a letter from Sirius about him coming over. James knew that Sirius’ parents would never have allowed him to go over to Jaz’s, so he had been expecting a letter. He was glad when he finally got the letter, though. He would have to ask Sirius tomorrow how things were going at home.

* * *

The day of Jasmine’s birthday, Petunia unexpectedly showed up. She wanted to visit her parents for a short time. Her arrival threw a bit of a wrench in Jasmine’s plans, but she had planned for if Petunia happened to show up. They would just have to spend their time outside the house. Jasmine figured that they could just hang out at the local park that was down the street from the house. Jasmine had already been planning on going there with them anyway. She had planned for it to be later, but she would just have to move up her plans. She also couldn’t let them in the house, lest Petunia saw them and said something that made the boys do something extremely stupid.

As Jasmine fixed her original plan, Sirius had already arrived at James’ house. Right now, he and James were hanging out outside. It was such a nice day that they both thought they would just chill out outside until they went over to Jasmine’s. They were going to be taking the Knight Bus since James parents didn’t have any other way to get there, short of side-along apparition. They hadn’t wanted to do that, though, especially if there were any muggles around.

Outside the boys were just chilling out when James interrupted their silence. “Hey, Padfoot.”

“Yeah, Prongs? What is it?”

“How are things at home? Are your parents still beating you?”

“Geez, Prongs.” Sirius was surprised at James’ questions. He hadn’t expected him to just come out and ask him such a heavy topic right off the bat. “Things at home are the same as always.”

It was just as James had feared. Sirius’ parents were still beating him. The only thing James was glad for in that circumstance was that Sirius’ parents hadn’t resorted to magic violence yet. As soon as they did that, James just hoped that his best friend was able to get out of there without dying. James wasn’t sure what he would do if he lost Sirius.

Soon enough, though, these thoughts vanished from James’ mind since it was time for them to head to Jasmine’s. They agreed to go around noon. So, both boys grabbed their presents for the girl and headed off with Mr. and Mrs. Potter to hail the Knight Bus that would take them to the Evans’ house.

It didn’t take long for them to get to Jasmine’s place on the Knight Bus. Before James and Sirius go off the bus, Mr. and Mrs. Potter told the boys that they would be back to get them at around dinner time. Then the boys bid Mr. and Mrs. Potter goodbye and stepped off the bus.

Jasmine had been in hers and Lily’s room talking when she happened to look out the window and see the boys approaching the house. Interrupting Lily, Jasmine said, “Hey, sorry, Lils, but the boys are here. I’ll see you later.” Then Jasmine left the room in a dash. She had to be the one to answer the door because if anyone else answered it, that would end in disaster. So, Jaz ran to the front door. She got there just in time to hear knocking. “I got it,” Jaz yelled to her aunt and uncle before opening the door to see James and Sirius.

Jasmine stepped outside, closing the door behind her. The boys were both grinning at her. The next thing Jaz knew, two presents were being shoved into her arms, saying, “Happy birthday!”

“Guys, you really didn’t have to get me anything. I just appreciate having you both here.” They both gave her a look as if to say _You seriously thought we weren’t going to give you presents_. To which Jasmine rolled her eyes because of course these boys would get her a gift.

Then they were all just standing there in silence for about a minute or two. Jasmine was still holding both presents in her arms. Before long, though, Sirius spoke up, “So, are we just going to stand here all day, or are you going to open those presents?”

Jasmine laughed. “Oh of course I’m going to open them. I was planning on open them later, but I guess I may as well open them now.” With that, Jasmine took a seat on the ground in front of the door. She put both presents down next to her. Then she selected, at random, on of the two presents, which was James’. Jasmine ripped open the present and saw that it was a copy of one of her favorite books. She remembered that she had mentioned that she didn’t have a copy earlier in the year. Jasmine was surprised that James remembered. “I love it James, thank you.” Then she gave him a peck on the cheek, to which James blushed red.

Jasmine placed James’ gift down and picked up Sirius’ present. She ripped it open and found a small little box. Jaz opened it up and found a beautiful charm bracelet. There are a bunch of little musical charms on it like music notes and sheet music and other music stuff. It was really cute. Jaz just adored the little bracelet. “Oh my! I love it, Pads.” She gave him a peck on the cheek as well. “Will you help me put it on?” Sirius happily obliged and helped the girl put on the bracelet as he tried really hard not to blush.

Once the bracelet was on, Jasmine grabbed the book James got her and told the boys, “Could you both stay here for a moment. I’m going to run inside and put this book in my room. I’m also going to throw this wrapping paper away. Then we can go to the park down the street.” Jasmine smiled and headed inside, grabbing the wrapping paper as she went.

Jasmine returned fairly quickly. James and Sirius had only been waiting a couple of minutes before Jasmine returned. Before she left, Jaz made sure to tell her aunt and uncle that would be at the park down the road. Then she headed out the door and started walking toward the park, assuming the boys were following her, which they were.

Jasmine managed to get a bit ahead of the boys, but they caught up easily. They walked in silence for several minutes before James broke it. “So, Jazzy, willy Lily-pad be joining us today?”

Jasmine shook her head and rolled her eyes. “No, she is probably going to stay holed up in our room all day.” James just nods, disappointedly.

The fall back into silence as they continue to walk to the park. It isn’t long before James breaks the silence again. “So, just wondering, why weren’t we allowed inside?”

“Oh, um, well Petunia decided to make a surprise visit home today of all days. I pretty sure she doesn’t even remember it is my birthday.”

James gave her a confused look, while Sirius, unbenounced to the other two, had stiffened up a little. He was remembering that one moment that he had with Lily their fourth year. He didn’t speak up, though, since they swore that they wouldn’t tell anyone. Instead James was the one to speak. “Um, who’s Petunia?”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot I haven’t told you about my other cousin.” James still looked confused. “Petunia is Lily’s older sister.”

“Oh!” James didn’t know how else to respond to that, so he asked another question. “So, why does her being home prevent us from going inside.”

“Well, I don’t know if I should really tell you this.” Jasmine hesitated. She wanted to give the boys a reason, but she also didn’t want to tell them anything that could be an invasion of Lily’s privacy. However, they were bound to find out eventually with James so determined to get Lily to date him, so Jasmine might as well just tell them now. Also, Lily really hadn’t ever told her to not tell the boys, so there really wasn’t any reason not to.

By the time Jasmine was done with her internal debate, they had reached the park. So when she finished her internal debate, she spoke up again. “Well, I don’t think it will hurt to tell you guys. You should know.” Jasmine glanced at both of them. James was still looking very confused with a little concern mixed in there. Sirius on the other hand looked like he wanted to say something but was stopping himself from saying anything. “So, Petunia isn’t very nice to Lily and I. She is actually pretty mean most of the time. She has called us various names like freak, but I think she does it out of jealousy. I haven’t had to deal with Petunia much over the years, but from Lily has told me Petunia is jealous that Lily is a witch. Petunia doesn’t think it is fair that Lily developed “powers” and she never did. So, over time Petunia has only gotten more and more distant from Lily. It has been even worse lately, but I don’t know why. Petunia used to just call me and Lily freaks, but ever since she got with that new boyfriend of hers, the insults have been more hurtful. It has been really hurting Lily ever since it started, but I feel like it hurts her so much more now. I feel so bad.” Jasmine almost wants to tell them about how much it hurts her because it does. Petunia’s word might hurt Lily, but they hurt Jasmine some much more. Sometime Jasmine wanted to cry after Petunia said some of the more hurtful things. It all reminded her too much of her mother.

As Jasmine told her all of this, she is trying her best not to cry. She can feel the tears building up, so she hides her face from the boys by looking down. She does not want the boys to see her cry, especially on her birthday. But she can’t help it. By talking about Petunia, Jasmine is only reminded of her mother. So, Jasmine was determined not to cry. She wanted to show the boys that she was a tough girl. Words couldn’t get to her, despite how they might have gotten to her in the past.

Once Jasmine is sure that she isn’t going to cry, she looks up at both boys. She can see the shock on their faces. They clearly weren’t expecting Jasmine to say what she had told him. She wasn’t sure what they were expecting her to say, but it wasn’t what she said.

Well, Sirius was actually shocked for a different reason. Since he already knew about Petunia because of his moment with Lily fourth year, he had already known all of this. No, Sirius was shocked for a different reason. He was a bit shocked at how bad it actually was for Lily as well as Jasmine now. However, most of his shock came from the fact that he thinks that he saw tears start to sprout in Jasmine’s eyes before she looked down to cover her face. See the tears in her eyes, Sirius was immediately sent into shock. He didn’t think that Petunia would have such an impact on Jasmine since they weren’t all that close. He could understand Lily being upset since they were sisters, but what had Petunia done to bring such a strong girl as Jasmine almost to tears.

As the shock wore off of both boys, they both became very angry. Before they could say anything about wanting to kill Petunia or something, though, Jasmine spoke up. “Um, guys, could we change the subject? I’d rather not talk about this on my birthday,” Jasmine said a bit tentatively.

The quietness and unsureness of Jasmine’s voice almost broke Sirius. He could see just how much of a touchy subject Petunia was to her as well, so he immediately agreed with Jasmine’s suggestion. “Of course, Mare.” So, they changed the subject to OWLs and how many they might have gotten.

After discussing OWLs that steered the conversation to what happened when they last saw each other. They each apologized again for their action, which Jasmine immediately forgave them for. Like she had said before in her letter, she forgave them, but if they ever did anything like that again it wouldn’t end as happily for them. The promised that they wouldn’t, partially out of fear of what Jasmine would do. The memories of the curses she threw at them after the incident were still fresh in their mind.

The rest of the time at the park, the talked and played around. They had a lot of fun. The boys managed to get Jasmine to forget all about her mother for the time being, which she was very grateful for. She really needed the distraction.

The time seemed to fly and before they knew it, it was time for the boys to leave. So, the trio headed back to Jasmine’s to wait for James’ parents to come and pick up both boys. They weren’t waiting long outside before Mr. and Mrs. Potter arrived via Knight Bus. They were planning on just doing side along apparation to get back to Potter Manor. It was in a wizarding area, so them apparating in wouldn’t frighten anyone or anything.

Mr. and Mrs. Potter chatted with Jasmine a little bit, even wishing her happy birthday, before taking their leave. They really liked the girl. She was a sweet thing, but they could also see the mischievous gleam in her eye. They could understand why their son was friends with this girl. They would have to tell James to invite her over some time so they could get to know her better.

Overall, Jasmine had a great birthday. After the boys had left, Jasmine found out that Petunia was no longer there. Then they all sat down to dinner. For dessert, her aunt and uncle had gotten her a cake, which was really delicious. When Jasmine laid down for bed that night, she had a smile on her face.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Potter Manor, the four people had just arrived back. Sirius ended up staying for dinner. He planned on staying pretty late at James’ place to ensure that when he stuck back home, his parents and brother would be asleep. Before Sirius was about to leave though James stopped him. “Sirius just be careful. I’ll see you in September. Or maybe when I go to get my books. Just stay safe. And if it gets worse, just know there is always a place for you here. You are welcome anytime. Also, if you need me, I’ll be there in a second, well not as second because I don’t know how to apparate yet. Plus, I can’t use magic outside of school, but you get the point.” He gave his best friend a smile.

Sirius nodded and gave a little laugh in acknowledgement. “Don’t worry James. They don’t even know I left. I’ll be fine. But if I do end up needing you, I know where to find you. I’ll see you soon.” Sirius smiled and headed out of the manor. Once outside, he hailed down the Knight Bus and rode it home.

Everything went wrong once Sirius opened the door. At first Sirius suspected nothing to be amiss but how wrong he was. After he closed the door, the lights turned on and there were his parents standing there. And they did not look happy with him at all. Sirius sighed. He had really hoped that his parents hadn’t noticed his absence. Obviously, he wasn’t so lucky. So, he resigned himself for his punishment, which he knew would hurt, but a least they hadn’t used spells or magic yet. That wouldn’t have been good if they started that.

“SIRIUS BLACK, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL DAY? YOU BETTER NOT HAVE BEEN WITH THAT NO-GOOD BLOOD TRAITOR!!” His mother yelled at him, but instead of punching or kicking him like he thought she would, she threw a curse at him. That surprised him greatly, which was evident by how his eyes increased in size. He didn’t even have time to dodge the spell. Luckily, it wasn’t the killing curse.

Sirius knew he had to get out of this house immediately. His parents were using curses to punish him now. This was not good.

This is how Sirius Black ended up beaten up with various cuts on his body barely standing outside James’ place with his trunk containing all of his stuff. Sirius had managed to knock on the door before he collapsed. Luckily, it wasn’t too long after he had left that Sirius arrived back at Potter Manor, so James was still awake. He heard the knock and rushed to the door to see who it was, especially at this hour. Seeing Sirius lying on the ground looking almost dead, James yells out for his parents. “MOM! DAD! COME QUICK!” James could hear his parents rushing down the stairs to see what was wrong, but he couldn’t focus on anything but his best friend on the ground.

His parents arrived at the scene and seeing Sirius, James mother, who was a talented healer, ordered, “James, quickly, bring him into the house and lay him down on th couch.” After Sirius was on the couch, Mrs. Potter got to work on Sirius. Meanwhile, to distract himself, James helped his father carry Sirius’ trunk inside the house.

Mrs. Potter did the best that she could to heal and clear up the bruises and cuts that were scattered across Sirius. She couldn’t get rid of all the cuts, though. She could tell they were created from spells and would probably leave scars. After she was done, she told James to go up to bed. There was nothing more that he could do for Sirius right now. They would just have to wait and see.

Sirius didn’t wake up until the next morning. When he did wake up, he was bombarded by questions from James. Eventually his parents walked in and took James away. They told him to leave Sirius alone for the moment. So, he let his parents talk to Sirius first. He was just so worried for his best friend. James made sure he was in the room as his parents calmly chatted with Sirius.

Once Sirius was fully awake, he told them all what had happened the night before. “So, my parents found out earlier in the day that I had snuck out. They had been waiting for me when I got home. They were so angry, but I just assumed the punishment would be like always. I just assumed they were just going to beat me like they would normally. What I didn’t expect was them taking out their wands. They had never used magic and curses before so why they should have now. As they shot the first spell though, I knew they were actually trying to curse him and hurt me, maybe even kill me. So, I ran up to my room as fast as I could and gathered everything that I could. I dragged his trunk out of the house, but since my parents were still where I had left them, I had to pass his parents on the way out. They managed to hit me several times with various spells and curses. As I made it out of the house, I heard my mother call out that I was disowned and I was never welcomed back, not that I would ever want to go back to that hell hole.” James couldn’t believe that Sirius’ parents would actually resort to that level of violence, well he could believe it, but it was still surprising. They had never tried to curse Sirius before, so why did they suddenly resort to such tactics.

By the end of the story, Sirius was crying, and James saw the real Sirius once again. He had only seen this side of Sirius a few times. The real Sirius was broken and needed repair, but James could only do so much. However, James knew Sirius wasn’t crying because his parents kicked him out, but for his brother and the horrors he knew he was going to be facing alone now. James knew how much Sirius really cared for his little brother despite not showing it at school. So, Sirius wasn’t crying for himself, but for Regulus, who he knew was going further and further into the dark arts despite Sirius trying to protect him from his parents’ influence.

Once Sirius was done with his story, James’ parents immediately hugged Sirius. He started to cry into them. Then pulling slightly back from the hug, Mrs. Potter told him, “Sirius, you are welcome to stay here.”

Sirius looked up at her and gave her a watery smile. He was so thankful to have such a wonderful best friend, whose family was willing to let him stay with them.

That was the day the Potters took Sirius Black in. Sirius was practically already their son what with him staying there several times over Christmas and Spring Holiday. Now he would just be staying with them permanently instead of for a few weeks a year. James’ parents would make sure to give Sirius the life that he deserved instead of the one that he had before. James saw this love that his parents were giving to Sirius and vowed to protect his best friend no matter what. Sirius was going to need him. He needed James to help him through this difficult time. This was the beginning of James becoming less of a bully and more of a better person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And done with another chapter. It's pretty long. I’m pretty proud of this chapter. I hope you all enjoy it. Let me know what you think. I really appreciate feedback, it lets me know whether I am actually doing a good job, so don’t be shy to let me know what you think of the story.
> 
> ۞See you all later, Knk6700۞


	10. Back to Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Marauders, Jasmine, and Lily are starting their sixth year at Hogwarts. What adventures and romances might this year have in store for them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so for now, no more major drama. At least I don’t think there will be for now. Enjoy the chapter! 😊 (PS sorry about not updating in a while. Been busy with school and I got a bit too into knitting)
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 10: Back to Hogwarts

It had been a week since Sirius had come to live with James. James was excited to have his best friend live with him, but he realized soon after Sirius started to live with them that it wasn’t going to be easy. Sirius was still adjusting to his new home life. There had been a few incidents already were Sirius had broken a glass or made a mess or something. When it happened, Sirius always cleaned it up immediately while apologizing. He was always reassured that it wasn’t his fault or that it was just an accident. Most of the time this worked to calm Sirius down which was promising.

These incidents, though, freaked James out a bit. He knew Sirius was broken, but James couldn’t even begin to fathom how to help fix his best friend. He had no idea what to do. James’ parents have always loved him. Sometimes they even doted on him, which he didn’t mind one bit. James didn’t know how to relate with what Sirius had been through. But he did know that he would always be there for his best friend. His parents had told him that the best thing that he could do now was just be there for Sirius, which is exactly what James planned on doing.

Anyway, besides the incidents, having Sirius live with James was awesome. Since Potter Manor had so many rooms, there was plenty of rooms that Sirius could choose from to be his new bedroom. He ended up choosing the room next to James’ bedroom. Sirius decorated the room the way he wanted, for once.

As Sirius began to settle into his new life with the Potters, he was able to relax more. It was about two weeks in when he remembered the extra credit project for Muggle Studies. He still wanted to try and do it, so he asked James for help. He would have reminded Jasmine that she agreed to help him, but he knew she would know something was up when James’ owl delivered his letter instead of the owl that had been delivering his letters previously. He wasn’t ready to explain why he had James’ owl, Merlin, just yet.

So, with James’ help, him and Sirius set out to search around for something muggle that could work. It was on this “adventure” that Sirius found the best thing that he has ever had. It was a motorcycle – well it was only the bare bones of one but still. The motorcycle was about to get hauled off when he spotted it. Luckily, him and James managed to stop it, so Sirius now had the frame of a motorcycle. He had no idea how he was going to restore it, but he was determined to make it work. Somehow, he was going to get this motorcycle running again. He knew, though that he wasn’t going to be bringing this in for the extra credit project. He didn’t care about the extra credit, though. He just wanted the motorcycle.

That is how Sirius found his own summer project to work on for the rest of the summer. Sirius started off by trying to figure out how to fix it up and get it running. Again, he would have asked Jasmine for help, but he wasn’t sure how much she actually knew about fixing up motorcycles. Also, by now him and James had agreed that it would be better to tell the rest of the Marauders about Sirius’ new living situation in person. It would be better that way.

So instead of asking Jasmine for help, Sirius did his own research by going to a local muggle library and using his Muggle Studies books. By using those resources, Sirius was able to figure out just what kind of motorcycle it was as well as how to fix it up. After figuring out what kind of motorcycle it was, Sirius knew he would need certain parts to fix the motorcycle up. It took almost the rest of the summer, but with James’ help, they had found all the parts that they would need to fix up the motorcycle.

Sirius had only just started to fix the motorcycle up when they got their Hogwarts letters. A couple days later they all headed off to Diagon Alley. Since Sirius was disowned, he didn’t exactly have any money to buy the books that he needed. The Potters didn’t mind helping Sirius out, though. They payed for all of his books that he would need for the coming school year, which Sirius was really grateful for.

The rest of the summer Sirius spent hanging out with James as well as fixing up the motorcycle, which James also helped with. Therefore, Sirius and James ended up spending a lot of time together. And through that time together, it became increasingly more obvious that Sirius realized that he liked Jasmine as more than a friend or sister. So, James being the guy that he was, went straight up to his best friend and asked, “Hey, Padfoot. Do you like Jasmine, like romantically?”

They had been working on the motorcycle at the time, so Sirius managed to hit his head after James asked that. “What?! Why would you say that? I don’t like her like that. She is just a friend.”

“Sure.” The sarcasm was evident in James’ voice. “And I don’t like Lily like that.”

Sirius rolled his eyes and turned his focus back toward the motorcycle, but evidently James wasn’t done yet. “Pads, I already know how you feel about her. It had been clear since I saw what you got her for Christmas. You fancy her, so don’t you dare lie to me anymore.”

Sirius knew James would keep pestering him about this until Sirius admitted the truth. So, in order to avoid James annoying the hell out of him any further he said, “Fine, I fancy her, Prongs.” Sirius glanced over at James and saw a smug look on his face. Sirius really wanted to hit him right now.

“I knew it!” James response was followed by another eye roll from Sirius. “So, when did you figure it out, padfoot? Cause I know you were still in denial at Christmas.”

Sirius really wanted to change the subject, but he didn’t think James would let him. “After the ‘prank.’ I hated it when she wouldn’t talk to me or even acknowledge my presence. It drove me mad. It was then that I realized I liked Jasmine more than the friend I thought she was. It was really frustrating seeing her talk with you guys and not me. No other girl had made me feel like this before, Prongs. I don’t know what to do.” Sirius had stopped working on the motorcycle and was staring at his best friend now.

“Well, Pads, you came to the right person.” Sirius started to interrupt to say that he never actually came to James and he didn’t need his help, but James wouldn’t let him. “Nope, you are getting my help, Pads whether you want it or not. All we need to do it come up with an elaborate scheme to get Jasmine to fancy you back. It will be great.”

Sirius rolled his eyes and went back to his motorcycle again. He tuned out James as his best friend began to explain his “master plan” for how to get Jasmine to fancy him. Sirius didn’t really care too much. He figured that he would only be able to get with Jasmine after he was able to finally tell her about what he had to deal with at home prior to this summer. Until then, he would just wait and see what would happen. 

Before James and Sirius knew it, they were on the train heading for Hogwarts. They were there early enough that they were able to get their usual compartment. They met up with Remus for a short bit before he headed off for his prefects meeting. They also met up with Peter, who was already in the compartment when they go there.

As the boys were getting settled, Lily and Jasmine had arrived on the platform. This time Lily’s parents were able to join them on the platform. They helped both girls put their stuff onto the train before hugging them goodbye. Then they broke the new they had been holding back from them.

“I wish I could tell you girls we would see you at Christmas, but I doubt you will want to come home,” Mrs. Evans told the girls. They gave her confused looks.

“Why wouldn’t we want to come home, mom?” Lily asked her mother.

“Well, when Petunia said she would come home for Christmas and I just think it would be better for you girls to stay at school. She is even going to bring that boyfriend with her.” Mrs. Evans gave the girls an apologetic smile.

Both girls groaned in unison. Then they said goodbye again and got onto the train.

“Ugh! Why does she have to come at Christmas? Why not some other time?” Jasmine complained to her cousin. Lily didn’t say anything in response. She didn’t really know what to say. She still loved her sister, but she knew it would be better if she stayed at school while she was home.

Jasmine had decided to walk with Lily until she found where the boys were sitting. It didn’t take long for them to find the boys though. They actually ended up bumping right into them. The girls were knocked down by the force of the boys running into them. Both boys apologized to the girls, then noticing who it was, James exclaimed, “Jazzy! Lily-Pad!” Then he offered Lily his hand to help her up. After also noticing who it was, Sirius offered his hand to Jasmine to help her up. Both girls accepted the help, though Lily didn’t stay for long. Once she was off the floor, she made a hasty exit and headed for her prefects meeting. Meanwhile, Jasmine was hugging each of the boys.

“Prongs! Pads!” Jasmine exclaimed. “I feel like I haven’t seen you too in forever but really it has only been since July. I missed you both.”

“We missed you too, Mare,” Sirius responded with. It was much quieter than it would normally be. That was the first thing that Jasmine found odd about Sirius’ behavior. She noticed more as the train ride continued.

The second thing Jasmine noticed that was strange about Sirius’ behavior happened about a quarter of the way into the train ride. Remus and Lily had stopped in to say hello to them, Lily more begrudgingly, but she wanted to see her cousin. Sirius had been very quiet during the exchange, which Jasmine found strange. See, James was making a fool of himself in front of Lily again, which is when Sirius would usually start teasing James, but he didn’t say anything.

The third time happened when they were all together again in the compartment. Remus had noticed Jasmine’s bracelet. “Jaz, is that bracelet new?” Remus asked.

Sirius immediately drew his attention to the bracelet that Remus had been talking about. He saw that it was the bracelet he had given Jasmine for her birthday. “Yes, it is. In fact, Sirius here gave it to me for my birthday when he came over.” Sirius swears he saw Jasmine blush slightly at that, but he wasn’t entirely sure. “I’ve worn it every day since I got it.” That comment made Sirius blush, which Jasmine happened to notice this time. _“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sirius blush before.”_ Jasmine thought. _“This is the third thing that has been out of the ordinary for him today. I wonder what is up with him.”_ Jasmine doesn’t get to voice her thoughts as the boys “kick her out” so that they can get changed into their robes, which reminds her that she also needs to get changed.

It is during that time that another strange thing happens as well. Sirius actually exits the compartment too. Jasmine wasn’t really sure why he wasn’t changing into his robes with the other boys, but she didn’t mind the company as they walked to the bathroom together.

Then there was the instance that happened after they were all changed. The subject of Muggle Studies came up, which reminded Jasmine again about the extra credit project. She had been reminded about it a couple of days ago by Lily. She had asked her if she had done it. To which Jasmine gasped and realized that she had promised Sirius she would help him with it.

“Sirius, I am so sorry. I forgot all about the Muggle Studies extra credit project. I said I was going to help you with it, and I didn’t. I am so sorry.” Jasmine felt so guilty. She really hoped Sirius wasn’t mad at her for forgetting and backing out of her promise to help him.

“It’s no problem, Mare. I decided to not do it. It is no big deal.” Sirius brushed it off like it had meant nothing to him, which Jasmine was suspicious of. She remembered how excited he had been about the project and now he was brushing it off like it was nothing. She wondered what had happened since she had last seen the boy that changed his mind about it.

Sirius on the other hand, wasn’t going to tell her about the motorcycle he was fixing up. He didn’t actually want to tell anyone, except James, until he was completely done fixing it up. It would be his secret project for now. He would eventually tell them all, though. And when he does eventually tell Jasmine, he wants it to be a surprise. Sirius felt that she would be really proud of him for fixing the motorcycle up all by himself – well mostly by himself, James did help him after all.

There were other various strange occurrences that happened on the train, but Jasmine didn’t pick up on all of them. These instances were noticeable enough that Remus and even Peter started to notice as well. None of them ended up asking about it until they were at the feast.

Jasmine was the one to broach the subject. “So, Pads, what is up with you? You’ve been acting strange all day on the train. You weren’t like this when I saw you on my birthday, so what’s up?”

Sirius glanced at James, who nodded his head. “Well, I ran away from home. Now I live with James. I just couldn’t stay there anymore. It was too much.”

The others, except James, were gaping at him, obviously surprised. Once the surprise wore off though, Remus and Peter nod their heads in understanding. They knew his home life was bad, but really only Lily and James knew about the abuse. Peter and Remus only knew about the nasty letters and how his parents weren’t the best people. They were all about blood purity and what not.

Jasmine, on the other hand, was just left with confusion. _“What was so bad about Sirius’ home life that he had to run away from home?”_ Jasmine pondered. When Jasmine thought about it more, she realized how little she actually knew about Sirius’ home life. All she knows about his family life is that his family is made up of Slytherins and he is the only Gryffindor. Also, that they are a very pure and historically important family. There has been a lot of interbreeding with cousin marrying cousin to keep the bloodline pure. Jasmine wonders why she knows so little about his family and she was about to ask him why that was. The other boys evidently knew at least more than her, which she found unfair.

Jasmine’s question, though, was left unsaid as Dumbledore had stood up to give his usual announcements that he did at beginning of every school year. That was the end of any conversation. Then immediately after they headed up to Gryffindor Tower. On the way there, Jasmine didn't really get the chance to ask her question, either. They boys were too absorbed in their conversation that Jasmine couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Then when they reached the common room, they all immediately went to their dorms. By the morning, Jasmine completely forgot all of her thoughts from the previous night.

* * *

The first several weeks of the term seemed to fly by. The Marauders and Lily as well as Jasmine had most of their classes together. In Muggle Studies, Sirius and Jasmine sat next to each other again. Jasmine sat next to Lily in several their classes that they shared, but mostly she sat next to Sirius, which Jasmine found a bit odd. It wasn’t that she didn’t like sitting next to Sirius, but it was how she ended up sitting next to Sirius that was odd, like in Transfiguration. Jasmine wasn’t planning on sitting with Sirius in that class. She had actually gone up to James to ask him if he wanted to sit next to her. She never got the chances to ask him, though, because James immediately went to Remus to sit next to him. Jasmine looked around the class and saw that the seat next to Lily was already taken by Mary, but she noticed that the seat next to Sirius wasn’t taken. So, Jaz ended up sitting next to him. This sort of thing happened repeatedly where Jasmine would head toward one of the other boys, but the seat was already taken. Although, it didn’t always end with Jaz sitting next to Sirius since the seat next to Lily was sometimes open. In the end, Jaz was only sitting next to Lily in Potions, Astronomy, and Herbology. The rest of her classes besides music, Jasmine sat next to Sirius in. Jaz didn’t mind this, but she would have liked to have sat with James and Remus each in one of her classes. So, Jasmine ended up spending more time with Sirius by default.

Jasmine also spent more time with Sirius this term. It usually started out with her hanging out with both James and Sirius and sometimes Remus as well, then Remus, if he were there, would usually leave to go read or because he had prefect duties. If it was just Jaz, Sirius, and James, then James would not so subtly disappear. Jasmine noticed every time that he would try and leave. Then she would ask where he was going. He would usually give some lame excuse that Jaz knew wasn’t true, but she really didn’t care if he wanted to ditch them.

Although, during these hang outs between the three of them (James, Jaz, and Sirius), Jaz could tell there was a difference in the boys. They hadn’t acted like they were now the last time she saw them on her birthday. Now she noticed that the arrogance that had been present in James previously had been scaled down. He was still pretty arrogant at times but less so than he was last year. Then there was the fact that James along with Sirius weren’t insisting as much that they prank the Slytherins and others in a way that Jaz would consider as bullying.

With Sirius, he almost seemed like a different person at times. Jasmine would sometimes catch him staring at the Slytherin table with worry. She wasn’t sure why, though. She knew that Sirius younger brother, Regulus, was in Slytherin, but Jasmine didn’t understand the worried look on his face. Sirius hadn’t been doing that before, which is why Jaz found it so strange. Then there was the fact that Sirius actually seemed to be more cheerful as if since her birthday he had some kind of weight lifted off his shoulders. It was something that Jasmine was happy about. And with this cheerfulness came less malicious intent to do harm to others. Sometimes he would still try to hex a Slytherin, but Jaz was usually there to stop him from making a choice that he would eventually regret.

What Jasmine didn’t know was that the reason Sirius wanted to hex a Slytherin was because it was one of those that were hanging around his brother. He knew that they were the ones like Snape that were messing around with the dark arts. They were not the influence that he wanted for his younger brother. He wanted to do as much as he could for Regulus, but Sirius was starting to realize that it was a fruitless action. That didn’t mean that he was going to stop trying to protect him. Although, Regulus wasn’t much of a brother to Sirius, Sirius still loved him. Sure, James was more of an actual brother to him, but Regulus was still going to be his brother no matter what.

What Sirius realized, though, after he ran away from home was that Regulus didn’t even realize how much Sirius had actually done for him. Regulus had been absent for most of the beatings that their parents gave Sirius. He didn’t realize how much Sirius actually cared about him but that didn’t matter to Sirius. He didn’t need recognition. What Sirius needed was for his little brother to be safe, but he was afraid that he couldn’t actually protect him. Still, Sirius made sure to keep an eye on him when he could. He worried about his brother more than he would let on. The only one who truly knew of course was James. Remus knew some of it but not all of it. Peter was just, well, Peter, so he didn’t really know much.

So, as the term progressed, Jasmine noticed these changes in the boys. She didn’t want to ask them about it, afraid that if she brought it to their attention that they would revert back to their old ways. She really didn’t want that, so she left it as it was. She was just happy to see that the boys were starting to grow up and mature. They were learning from their mistakes, which Jasmine really appreciated.

The fact that they were mature actually resulted in Jasmine starting to see them in a new light. She still saw James as the brother she never had, but it was different with Sirius. Jasmine will admit that she always thought that he looked good in a bad boy kind of way. She will even admit that she had a tiny crush on the boy, but she wouldn’t act on it. Jasmine had heard the rumors about Sirius many times over. According to the rumors, Sirius was a big ladies’ man. He lived up to the bad boy reputation that he had earned. Jaz also heard that he would snog a different girl every week. Although, Jasmine wasn’t sure how true any of these rumors actually were since she hadn’t actually seen Sirius with many girls. Despite this, Jasmine didn’t want to take the chance that they were true, especially since it was just a small crush. It just didn’t seem like enough to even consider taking the chance.

This all changes when the Marauders, including Jasmine, are planning a prank. It was to be their second prank of the term. The first one they pulled in the first week of term. Now it was late September and Jasmine was itching to plan another prank. She just loved the thrill of it. They were in the brainstorming phase, which meant that they were all gathered in the boys’ dorm room spouting off possible prank ideas. Each of the boys sat on their beds as usual, with Jasmine sitting on to Sirius on his bed as he laid back on it. He had his feet laying across her lap, something he was trying hard not to think about.

James had just spouted off another ridiculous idea that Jasmine knew was meant for the Slytherins even if he didn’t specify. His idea, though absurd, had sparked something in Jasmine as well as Sirius. An idea came to the both of them.

“What if we…” Jasmine started to say. The rest of what she was saying was drown out by Sirius’ idea.

“We should do…” Sirius suggested, but the other boys couldn’t understand him or Jaz because they were talking over each other.

The two realized soon after they started speaking that they were talking over each other. “You go first,” Jasmine told Sirius.

“No, you go. I can wait,” Sirius insisted.

Jasmine didn’t want to argue with him, so she just went first. “So, as I was saying, what if we put each of the house’s animals outside their common rooms, well except Gryffindor. Maybe for our house we just put a big plushie of a lion. Don’t want a vicious lion that could eat us as we exit the common room. It’s just an idea though. What’s your idea, Sirius?” Jasmine turned to see that the boy in question was gaping at her.

Sirius shook his head to break himself out of his stupor. “Oh, um, well actually its pretty similar to yours. I was just thinking that we could transforms some objects into each house’s animals and set them loose at dinner or something. I didn’t even think about the fact that Gryffindor’s animal is a lion. I really love your idea, Mare. It’s much better than mine.” Sirius ducked his head to hide the blush he knew was forming on his cheeks.

While Sirius was fighting his blush and emotions for Jaz, Jasmine was having her own not friends like thoughts about Sirius. Jasmine couldn’t believe that both her and Sirius came up with similar ideas at basically the same time. She knew Sirius was slightly different from her own, but maybe they could combine the two ideas somehow. She liked Sirius’ idea as much as her own, which is why she said, “No.” That caught Sirius’ attention, causing him to look up. “Your idea is great too Sirius. I think there is a way that we can combine both of our ideas. I just came up with a great idea.” Sirius gave her a smile and a nod in response.

Then James spoke up. “Well I think both ideas are fantastic.” Sirius glanced over at him. James had a smirk on his face as well as an expression Sirius knew meant that he was up to something. “I think that you both just came up with our next prank. Since it was both of your ideas, I think we can leave the planning to you guys.” James gave them a smirk before ushering Remus and Peter out of the room. He wanted to give the ‘couple’ a little time together. He knew Sirius would know what he was up to, but he didn’t really care. He also didn’t care to explain to the other boys why they were being ushered out of their dorm room. He just told them to leave the two alone before leaving to go do who knows what. It was the weekend after all.

Meanwhile, after James had pushed the other boys out of the room, Jasmine turned around on Sirius’ bed. She was now sitting crisscross facing Sirius, who was now sitting up. He was leaning against the wall with his legs laying next to where Jasmine was now sitting.

Jasmine spoke up first. She smiled and explained her plan. “So here is what I was thinking…”

They spent the rest of the day until dinner in the room planning and incorporating their plans with each other. They did take a few breaks when they got hungry and realized they missed lunch. So, Sirius showed her where the kitchens were. In the kitchens was where Jasmine had the realization that she had been denying all day. Throughout the time the two were planning the prank, Jasmine would relish when they happened to brush each other. It happened a lot after Jasmine got some parchment and a quill. They used it to map out their prank, which involved a lot of them moving their hands around to point things out to the other, and sometimes their hands would happen to brush each other. Each and every time, Jasmine would blush.

So, in the Kitchens, Jaz was joking around with Sirius when they both grabbed for the last biscuit that they had gotten from the house elves. Jasmine pulled her hand away and told Sirius that he could have it. Jasmine had turned away to hide the blush she could feel creeping onto her face. It was then that Jaz realized that her crush wasn’t as small as she thought it was originally. Instead it had steadily gotten bigger since the beginning of the term. Jaz thought back on it and if she was being honest, she already knew that this was going to happen immediately after she started to notice the changes in Sirius’ behavior. Jasmine knew it was just a matter of time.

This revelation posed problems for Jasmine though. Knowing that she really fancied Sirius more than a friend ever should, would make it hard for her to hide it. Though, Jaz would make sure she hid it to the best of her ability because she couldn’t lose Sirius. Over the short time that she had known him, Jaz had gotten really close to him, and Jasmine didn’t know if she could lose yet another person that she was close to again. There was also the fact that she wasn’t planning on telling him or the others about her mother. Because of that, Jasmine knew she would feel guilty about lying to him if they were in a relationship. And that was just the stuff about her. There was also the fact that Sirius might not like her back or even if he did, he might not want a long-term relationship that she knew she wanted. She just couldn’t take the chance.

After their time in the kitchens, they went back up to finish planning the prank they would be pulling off next week. Although, the atmosphere in the room had changed after Jasmines self-revelation. She was hyper aware of every move that Sirius would make for the rest of the evening. When they finished the plan, Sirius pulled Jaz into a hug, which was much longer than a platonic one would be. This did give Jasmine hope that Sirius liked her back to some extent, but Jaz couldn’t act on her feelings or at least that is what she kept telling herself. It was in this hugging position that the boys found them in. Which is when the two broke apart. Luckily for Sirius, Jaz didn’t notice the smirk that James shot at Sirius that came with a wink from the boy. Sirius rolled his eyes at his best friend’s antics.

“Hey guys,” Jasmine greeted. “You came back at just the right time. We just finished the plan.”

All the attention turned to the two as they explained the plan. They all approved of the plan and headed down to dinner together. At the entrance to the Great Hall Jasmine split off from the boys to sit with Lily and her dorm mates. She told the boys that she needed some girl time and would talk with them later. She really just needed to talk to Lily about her sudden realization about her feelings for Sirius.

Dinner with Lily was normal. Nothing really happened until after dinner when on their way back to the common room, Lily pulled her cousin into an empty classroom. “Okay, Mina, what’s up? You were quiet for most of dinner. And don’t you dare lie to me.”

“Well, um, I maybe fancy Sirius.”

“Black? You fancy Sirius Black?” Lily let out a laugh before continuing. “So? I figured you already knew that you liked him after I teased you about it when his letter arrived the day before your birthday.”

“I did know. But at that point it was only a small crush. How could I not like him, but there was so much stopping me from liking him anymore. The thing is now I realize that it is way past a crush and more like I really fancy him.”

Lily stared at her cousin. “Are you serious? You just realized that you really like him!” Jasmine didn’t know how to respond, so she just nodded her head. “Wow, Mina. What changed?”

“Well me and Sirius were practically spending the day together…” Jasmine goes on to tell Lily about everything, except the prank that they were planning. She didn’t want Lily stopping her after all.

“Oh, Mina.” Lily pulled her cousin into a hug. “There is no way that Sirius would ever leave you. He is one of your best friends.”

“You don’t know that for sure Lils. Plus, there is the fact that I am still lying to him about my mother. I don’t ever plan on telling him or any of the others about that. I would feel so guilty continually lying to him.”

“Oh, Mina. I really don’t see why you won’t just tell them. They would be so understanding,” Lily wanted to add that Sirius would especially be understanding, but she promised she wouldn’t say anything about what they discussed in the owlery that day. She couldn’t break the promise, even though she really wanted to. Also, Lily wasn’t sure Jasmine wouldn’t even believe her if she told her. No, Jaz would need to hear that from Sirius himself.

“No, I’m not telling them Lils. All I will get from them is pity and I really don’t want that. They will treat me like I am broken when I am not.” Lily didn’t say anything. She just pulled her cousin into a tighter embrace.

Lily continued to comfort her cousin as they headed up to Gryffindor Tower. She really wished she could do more for Jasmine than she was doing right now. She wished she could finally convince Jaz to tell the boys about her mother.

* * *

Jasmine didn’t mention her feelings for Sirius for the rest of the weekend into the coming week. She did her best to keep them bottled down, which was much harder to do than she thought it would be. As the week progressed though, Jasmine was thankful that besides classes she had the prank to take her mind off of things.

They ended up pulling their prank on Friday. The plan that her and Sirius came up with was to transfigure one thing in each of the common rooms into their house animal. They would do live animal for each house except Gryffindor. For Gryffindor they would just do a giant plushie. They would do this part of the plan the night before, so they petrified each live animal with a timing component installed so that it would start moving around until the morning when people were awake. That was phase one of their plan that they initiated on Thursday. They had luckily found out what the passwords for each of the common room was, well except Ravenclaw which was a riddle that they did solve.

Part 2 of the plan would come at dinner time on Friday, but before then, they five of them had to hide their giggles at the reactions of the Gryffindors seeing a giant plushie lion in the common room. They also had to hide their laughs at breakfast when they noticed how the other students looked dealing with their animals this morning. They had made sure that none of the animals would try and kill any of the students. They didn’t need an incredibly guilty conscious.

The day flew by and soon it was time to implement part 2 of the prank. They all made sure to arrive early outside the Great Hall for dinner, but they didn’t go in. They wanted to make sure that there were plenty of students in their before they implemented the plan. This part of the plan would be the trickiest part since it was highly unlikely that none of them would get caught. So, since it really only took two them to implement this part, Jaz and Sirius agreed that they would take the fall. It was their plan, so it was only fair that they took the fall. The others headed into the Great Hall with no argument.

Once Jaz and Sirius were sure there were enough people in the Great Hall, they implemented part 2 of the plan. This part of the plan was where Sirius original idea came into fruition. They made a few tweaks though. The plan was to release the live version of each of the houses’ animals, even Gryffindor, although the lion would be a small cub. When a spell hit the live animal, it would burst into a bunch of plushies of the animal. If the animal wasn’t hit by a spell by the time it reached the table it was supposed to go to, then the animal would automatically burst into stuffed animals after reaching the table. To make it go smoothly, they would do one animal at a time.

The prank went off with out a hitch. And surprisingly none of them got into trouble. Jasmine and Sirius had luckily been able to sneak into the Great Hall unnoticed because of the chaos. After each time the animal exploded into plushies, everyone would laugh, even the Slytherins. It was a brilliant idea that brought Jaz and Sirius even closer together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw the motorcycle idea I found from a picture I found off of Pinterest (it was an idea from Tumblr I believe). I thought it was an excellent idea, so I used it. Anyway, I hope you really enjoyed this longer chapter, especially after I haven’t been posting so much lately. I will try to write one more chapter this week, but we will see what will happen.
> 
> 😊 Until next time my lovely readers, Knk6700 😊


	11. The Christmas Invitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Hogsmeade trip with Jily thrown in there.  
> And what's this about the girls staying at Hogwarts for Christmas? That simply won't do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally this chapter was going to be part of Chapter 10, but I decided to split the chapter apart because of the fact that Chapter 10 got really long. Also, as I started to outline what I wanted to do for this part, I came up with a lot of ideas. I feel that this would be better off as its own chapter. Anyway, enjoy this chapter my wonderful readers.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 11: The Christmas Invitation

Soon November rolled around. At the beginning of the month everyone was talking about the Hogsmeade weekend. It was the first weekend of November and everyone was excited, particularly James. He had been planning something for several weeks when he realized there would be a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. Though as he began to plan his scheme, James realized that he would need some help. So, James asked Remus and Peter for help.

_Flashback_

_The two boys that James was looking for were sitting in the common room. They were both working on homework. James was glad that his best friend was not with them. It would be better this way since the plan involved Sirius._

_James walked right up to the two and said, “Hey, Moony, Wormtail.” They both looked up to see what James wanted. “I’m planning something, and I need your help.”_

_Peter spoke up before James could continue. “Shouldn’t we get Jasmine and Sirius if we are planning another prank?”_

_James shook his head. “No. This isn’t about a prank. I’m actually planning something involving Jazzy and Pads. I realized that I can’t do it alone, so can I count on you guys to help?”_

_It was during this part that Lily had passed by them and overheard what James had said about planning something involving her cousin and Sirius. So, to find out what James could possibly be planning for her cousin, Lily interjected herself into the conversation. “Potter, what are you planning on doing? You better not be planning on hurting my cousin or I will end you.”_

_James jumped back a bit in surprise. He hadn’t seen Lily, so her voice had surprised him. “Oh, um, hey Evans. I’m not planning anything, especially not with your cousin.”_

_“Drop the act Potter. I overheard you just now. I know you are planning something. You might as well just tell me.” Lily really hoped that he wasn’t planning on pranking her cousin. She didn’t want to hurt him. She still couldn’t stand James Potter, but over the past several months of term she had also noticed the changes in him as well. He wasn’t so much of a bully as he was before. He was also more tolerable for Lily, but that didn’t in anyway mean that she would willingly go out with him anytime soon._

_“Fine, Evans, but you better not tell your cousin. I can’t have my plan being ruined.” Then James turned to the boys. “I can count on your help, right guys?” Both boys nodded. He motioned for Lily to sit down next to Remus so that he could inform them about his plan. After Lily took a seat, James continued, “Okay, so I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but we need to get Jazzy and Pads together. My plan…”_

_Before James could continue with his plan, Lily interrupted. “I want in.”_

_“What?”_

_“I want in on your plan. Despite the fact that I still can’t stand you Potter, I also think that Black and Mina would be good for each other. So, I’m helping with this plan whether you like it or not.” Lily was the only one who really knew that truly the two would be good together. She was the only one that knew about both Jasmine’s family and about Sirius’ family. So, Lily knew that they would be good for each other as well as help as they healed._

_James was shocked. He was not expecting Lily to be on board with a plan to get her cousin romantically linked with one Sirius Black, who he was pretty sure Lily still hated. Though this didn’t deter James. “Well, okay, the more the merrier. So, my plan is fairly simple right now. I plan to do it on Hogsmeade weekend. The only way for us to get them alone together is to make sure that we all leave them with excuses. That is as far as I have gotten, though.”_

_“Great plan, Potter.” The sarcasm was dripping from Lily’s voice._

_James glared at her. “Obviously, I haven’t really done a lot of planning yet, Evans.”_

_Before they could start arguing more, Remus spoke up. “Well, then we have some planning to do, don’t we Prongs. You are welcome to help, Lily.” They both broke their glaring contest to look at Remus_

_James nods his head. “Yeah, Moony we do.” This is followed by them beginning to plan what they would do for the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend._

_End of Flashback_

Now that it was finally Hogsmeade weekend, it was time for them to put their plan together. They had planned for several scenario just in case. They, mainly James and Lily, knew that they would be great together. Also, James and Lily both knew just how much Sirius and Jasmine cared for each other. They both also knew how hesitant their best friends were to start a relationship with the other.

Obviously, James knew that in order for a relationship between the two that Sirius would need to tell Jasmine about his family and his home life prior to him running away. While Lily knew that Jasmine wouldn’t start a relationship with Sirius until she had at least told him the truth about her mother and the emotional abuse. She wished that she could tell her cousin how much Sirius really could relate with her on that front, but she knew that it wouldn’t mean as much coming from her as it would from Sirius.

So, really both of them (James and Lily) hoped that at least the two would be able to see the truth on the Hogsmeade weekend. They hoped that there would even possible be a chance that the truth would come out, especially Lily. Too bad that their hopes didn’t exactly occur.

Originally Jasmine was going to spend part of the Hogsmeade weekend with the Marauders and part with Lily. That all changed when the plan was put into motion though, which happened at breakfast.

Jasmine walked into the Great Hall for breakfast with Lily, who she agreed to have breakfast with. Soon after they sat down, the boys strolled in and sat with them. Sirius took his usual seat next to Jasmine, slinging his arm over her shoulder. Remus and Peter sat across the table from Sirius, Jaz, and Lily. James, though, didn’t take his usual seat next to Sirius. Instead James took the open seat next to Lily, although he did it hesitantly. He was still cautious, but he had to talk to Lily about the plan. The only way that he could do that without Jaz or Sirius finding out completely would be to sit next to Lily. When he took the seat, both Jaz and Sirius gave him a curious glance. Jaz also gave her cousin a questioning glance and asked Lily, “Lils, are you okay if the guys join us for breakfast? I swear I was just going to meet them in the hall after breakfast.”

“It’s fine, Mina.” Lily said. Then she leaned in and whispered to Jasmine so that only she could hear. “They have started to grow on me. Potter and Black really aren’t as irritating anymore.”

Jasmine turned her head to Lily wearing an expression of shock. She didn’t think her cousin would ever be able to at least tolerate the guys, mainly James and Sirius. Then a thought occurred to her to which Jasmine relayed to her cousin by motioning to the boy sitting next to her. Jaz then wiggled her eyebrows suggestively to which Lily rolled her eyes in response. Then Lily turned her attention to James.

James, who was waiting patiently to talk to Lily, had been staring at the girls the whole time, mainly Lily. He had been admiring her lovely red hair when she turned to face him. She whispered so that only he could hear, “Potter, what are you doing sitting next to me?”

James, also lowering his voice so that only Lily would hear him, whispered, “I needed to talk to you about the plan.”

Lily, who had been glaring, softened her expression slightly. She still looked annoyed. “Fine. Now what is it that you wanted to discuss?”

James took a deep breath. “Well, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with us while we spy on Sirius and Jazzy?”

Lily was taken aback. James had asked her out plenty of time before this but this time it was different. This time he wasn’t really asking her out since they would also be hanging out with the other two, but Lily knew that Peter probably wouldn’t stay for long and neither would Remus. Although they also cared about Sirius, they weren’t as invested in getting him together with Jasmine as James and Lily were. They wouldn’t want to spend their entire weekend spying on them and to be truthful, neither did Lily. So, Lily responded, “Potter, I am not going to spend my entire weekend spying on my cousin and Black. That would be ridiculous. Plus, I have things I wanted to get done this weekend besides setting up my cousin.”

James stared at the girl in front of him. He almost got lost in her eyes, but he was able to pull himself away before that happened. “I wasn’t planning on spending the whole weekend spying on them. That would be utterly ridiculous. I have plans too you know. I’m also going to be using this weekend to look for Christmas presents. This is one of our last Hogsmeade Weekends before break, so I need to get it done soon or else I’m screwed.”

Again, Lily was taken aback by James. She had noticed that he had changed over the summer, but this was something different. Lily hadn’t really spent much time with him because he was an arrogant toe rag that didn’t deserve her attention. But over the time they spend planning this weekend, well, she had started to be able to tolerate his presence. Although during those planning ‘sessions,’ all they really did was plan. It was now that Lily was getting a bit more of an in site into who James Potter was. And Lily kind of wanted to get to know him a bit better, but not because she liked him. “ _No,_ ” Lily thought. “ _I want to get to know him for Mina._ ” Lily would never like James Potter because despite the change she saw in him, Lily knew he was still a bully. James was less of a bully now though, but that didn’t mean that he was suddenly a good person.

Before Lily could think about it more, she whispered to James, “I’ll join you for your Christmas shopping if you don’t mind. I still have some gifts to get as well.” James gave her a bright smile. That was the end of their little private conversation because Lily had turned away from James.

Soon breakfast was over. Jasmine gave her cousin a hug goodbye telling her, “I’ll see you later Lils.” Lily just smiled in response. This was part of their plan since if they let Jasmine sense that that wouldn’t be the case, it would throw the whole plan off. Instead they planned to just tell her as the day went on.

Jasmine walked out of the Great Hall with the boys, James being the last one out. He wanted to tell Lily to meet him in the Three Broomsticks around lunchtime so that they could go gift shopping.

As they reached the entrance to the castle, James stopped them. “Guys, I just realized that I have to get some Christmas gifts. Don’t you both have to as well, Remus and Peter?” The two in question nodded their heads in agreement. Meanwhile, Sirius just gave James a suspicious look. “Guess we will just have to leave you two to finish our shopping expedition.”

“Well, I still have some gifts to get as well.” Jasmine explained. “So, why don’t we just all go together?”

“No can do, Jazzy.” James was glad they had prepared for this. “It is yours and Sirius as well as a couple others that I have to get. Can’t have you trying to figure out what I got you for Christmas before the day in question.” Then before Jasmine could argue any further, James grabbed Remus and Peter and pulled them out to the carriages that were waiting to take them to Hogsmeade.

Jasmine stood there in shock over the whole thing, but Sirius was just irritated with his best friend. He couldn’t believe James in all of his attempts this year to try and get him and Jasmine together. Although, he might as well go with it. He still fancied Jasmine even though he wasn’t planning on acting on it anytime soon if ever. Plus, Sirius liked spending time with the girl. It was never a dull moment when she was around. So, Sirius said, “So, you are coming, Mare?” Sirius goofily offered his bent arm to her.

Jasmine shook out of her shock and looked at Sirius. She gave Sirius a huge grin and took his arm. Then they headed out to the carriages. Lucky for them they hadn’t left yet and there was one left that was actually empty.

In the carriage ride, Jasmine and Sirius discussed what they would do since the others had left them high and dry. They agreed to make sure that stopped by Zonko’s and Honeydukes. They also agreed to stop by the Three Broomsticks too. Besides those usual places, Jasmine convinced Sirius, with little trouble, to go to a music store as well as a bookstore with her. She still needed to get Lily a gift and figured that she might find something in the bookstore. And the music store was something that Jasmine just really wanted to see, especially since she hadn’t had the chance to visit it yet.

By the time they reached Hogsmeade, Sirius and Jasmine had their whole day planned out. It would be an amazing day. And the plus was that they became even closer by the end of the day. Jasmine even forgot that she was supposed to meet up with Lily with the amount of fun that she was having with Sirius. They had a great day and ended up getting several things.

By the end of the trip, Jasmine had bought gifts for all the boys, except Sirius, as well as Lily. Jasmine had already gotten something for her aunt and uncle. She would have Lily send it with her stuff. Sirius gift, on the other hand, Jaz had gotten several weeks ago. She had just happened on it, and when she saw it, she knew it would be the perfect gift for him.

Sirius, on the other hand, didn’t have much to spend to get gifts. He figured the guys would understand given the fact that they knew that he had been disowned. He had been able to get James something though as well as something for Jasmine. Although the gift for Jasmine did require Sirius to borrow some money from James, which James had given him before the trip as if he knew that Sirius would need it. Sirius would have to thank his best friend later for the money because he got Jasmine the best gift ever. He knew she would love it. Sirius just wished that he would be able to see her face when she opened it.

Meanwhile, James was hanging out with Peter and Remus until lunchtime. Thankfully, they managed to avoid running into Sirius and Jaz. James was joking when he told Lily he was going to spy on them. He hadn’t actually been planning on spying on the two. James wasn’t that nosy or rude. Plus, he knew that Sirius was already suspicious of him. If Sirius saw James that would just cement what Sirius thought James was doing. It wasn’t a smart idea.

At lunchtime, James bid Peter and Remus goodbye. “Hey guys. I’ll see you both later.”

Before he could leave though, Remus stopped him. “Where are you going, Prongs?” Remus put on lecture face before continuing. “You better not be going to spy on Padfoot.”

“Don’t worry I’m not going to go spy on them. I’m sure it’s going great. They are great friends anyway. They don’t need my supervision.”

“Then where could you possibly be going?”

Remus’ question was answered when Lily walked up to them. “Ready to go Potter?” Lily asked. James nodded and they left Remus and Peter gaping at them with their jaws dropped.

Soon after they had left, Remus turned to Peter and asked, “Did you know James was going out on a date with Lily?” Peter shook head vigorously. Little did they know it was not a date at all.

After James and Lily left the Three Broomsticks, Lily lead them to the bookstore. She had hoped to find a gift for Jasmine in there.

Inside the bookstore, James asked, “So, what are we looking for exactly, Lily-pad?”

Lily gave him a glare. “Don’t call me that. But we are in here looking for a book for Jasmine. I still need to get her a Christmas gift. I was thinking I would get her a copy of one of her favorite books. She doesn’t have that many books so I think she would really enjoy.”

“Oh. That’s a good idea. I should get her a book too.”

“You can’t steal my gift idea for Mina. I thought of it first.”

“Why not? It’s not like we are both going to get her the same book. Plus, you just said that she doesn’t have that many books.”

“Oh, um, I guess when you put it like that, it doesn’t actually matter.” Lily bowed her head to hide the blush that was appearing on her face from the embarrassment that she was feeling about the whole situation. “I’ll even help you pick out one of her favorites.”

“That would be great. Thanks Lily.” James gave her a grin. “I have one more question before we go search for these books.” Lily nodded her head indicating that he should continue. “From what I have learned about Jazzy over the last year, she loves to read. So, why doesn’t she have that many books?”

The question shocked Lily. She wasn’t expecting it. But Lily knew what the answer was. But she wasn’t about to tell him the truth. The truth would bring up way too many questions that Lily knew Jasmine didn’t want to be asked, let alone have them answered. Lily also didn’t know what her cousin had already told the boys about her mother and her home life, which was the reason she didn’t have as many books as she had wanted. So, Lily went with the safe answer. “Mina didn’t have a lot of money growing up for books and such.”

“Oh, wow, um. Yeah, I guess I just didn’t realize that she might not have had the money.”

After that they fell into a bit of an awkward silence as they searched the shelves for books. It was broken when Lily found one of Jasmine’s favorite books. After that disruption they fell into a comfortable silence as Lily helped James find a book for Jasmine. Once they found it as well as some other books, they set off to Honeydukes to get some treats as gifts for some of their own friends.

By the end of the trip, they had both finished all of their Christmas shopping complete. James even bought a nice cookbook that he happened to find for his mother that he knew she would enjoy. Overall, the Hogsmeade trip was really enjoyable for both of them. It wasn’t as enjoyable for James, though, once he got back to his dorm room.

In the room the other three boys were already there. Peter and Remus seemed to have been waiting for him, while Sirius didn’t even bother to look up when he heard James enter the room. Before the boys could speak up James beat them to it. “So, Pads, how was your day? Have a fun day with Jazzy?”

“I know you set us up Prongs.” Sirius glared at James. “Not that it’s any of you your information, but Mare and I had a great day. I was even able to get her the most amazing Christmas present without her knowing. Speaking of which, thanks for the money. I really appreciate it, Prongs.” Sirius gave his best friend a thankful smile, which James returned.

After Remus was sure their conversation was over, he took the chance to ask James about his afternoon with Lily. “So, Prongs, how was your little date?”

This perked Sirius’ attention. He turned to Remus and asked, “Date?” Turning to James he asked, “What date? With who? Don’t you dare tell me that you finally got Evans to go on a date with you. There is no way, she still hates you.”

Before James had the change to protest, Remus answered Sirius question for him. “Apparently he did. She met him at the Three Broomstick and then they went off who knows where.”

James finally got a word in. “It wasn’t a date. Ugh. We just went Christmas shopping together. I think she is starting to warm up to me. I really think I might have a shot in the future, though. We didn’t really fight the whole afternoon, although there was there were a few moments.” James then goes on to tell them all about his afternoon with Lily Evans, with a few exaggerations thrown in there for good measure.

* * *

The rest of the month of November flew by. It is late November when the topic of Christmas comes up again. Jasmine and Lily were already at dinner. They were chatting about nothing in particular when the boys come and sit with them. Ever since the Hogsmeade weekend earlier in the month, the boys had taken to inviting themselves to sit with Jasmine and Lily. Lily wasn’t as bothered by the action as much anymore. It actually seemed like Lily was starting to think of all the boys as friends, which Jaz was very thankful for. She was glad that her cousin was starting to see the good in the boys like she had.

So, the boys had just arrived at the table. Everyone takes their usual seats, including James who sits on the other side of Sirius. After sitting down, James asks, “So, what’s everyone’s plans for Christmas?”

Sirius answers first. “Well, you already know I’ll be staying with you, Prongs since I live with you.” James lets out a couple laughs.

Remus is the next to respond. “I’m going home. But based on when the full moon is in December, I should be able to make it to Potter Manor for a couple of days during the break. It will probably be after Christmas though.” The full moon comment isn’t too unusual for any of them, including Lily. Last month Lily had confronted Remus saying that she knew about his “furry little problem.” She basically told him the same thing that Jaz had told him. He was still Remus and she didn’t care if he was a werewolf. He would always be Remus no matter what.

Next is Peter who tells them, “I will be spending time with his extended family and won’t be able to make it to see any of any of you over break.”

“Too bad, Wormtail,” James says.

Next, they all look toward Jasmine and Lily to tell them what their plans are. Before responding, though, Jaz and Lily glance at each other. In this glance they both agree that they may as well tell him that they are planning on staying at Hogwarts. Jaz had told Lily about how she revealed to James and Sirius about Petunia shortly after they left. It was actually the same night that she had told her. Jaz didn’t like keeping stuff from Lily and tried not to keep too much from her. There were exceptions, but for the most part, Jasmine told Lily everything.

So, after Lily and Jaz agree to tell James their plans, Jaz turns to them and tells them, “Actually, Lils and I are planning on staying here at Hogwarts for Christmas.”

James is about to ask why, but he happened to glance at Jasmine. Her look tells him that she would explain later. So, he closes his mouth before he can ask the question. Then they all fall into silence for several minutes. One of the boys is about to change the subject when a brilliant idea comes to James. His face lights up. He takes a glance at Sirius, who immediately knows what James is thinking before he even says it. Sirius is glad that James thought to ask him before he voices his idea. Sirius gives him a slight nod in agreement with his idea.

After getting Sirius’ approval of the idea, James asks “Jazzy, Lily-Pad, how about you come and stay at Potter Manor for Christmas.”

Jaz and Lily glance at each other again. “That’s a kind offer Prongs, but you really don’t need to.”

Lily and Jaz’s reasons for not wanting to go where very different. Lily might not despise the boys as much, but she really did not want to spend Christmas with the boys who was obsessed with him. While Jaz just doesn’t want to impose on the James and his family. She doesn’t want to feel like a burden like she already kind of felt like with her aunt and uncle as well as how she felt with her mother.

James continues to try and convince them. “No, it’s really no problem. There are plenty of rooms in the Manor.” The girls still seemed a bit more hesitant, so James knows that he needs to really drive this home to convince the girls. “And my mother would love to have some other girls arounds. Afterall she is the only female in the house,”

Finally, Jaz relents. “Fine, Prongs. As long as you are sure that it won’t be a problem, we would love to come over for Christmas, right Lils?” Lily nods her head in agreement. She doesn’t want to spend Christmas “alone” at Hogwarts. It just wouldn’t be right without Jaz with her. Lily figured that it would be fun to an extent to spend Christmas with James and Sirius. Plus, maybe her and James could scheme to get Jasmine and Sirius together finally over the break.

After dinner, James heads up to the owlery to get Merlin to send a letter to his parents about Jasmine and Lily coming with them for break so that they could plan for them. He mentions to his mother that he should put Jasmine in the room next to Sirius’ room.

The next morning at breakfast, James gets a letter back from his mother about her excitement about the girls spending Christmas with them. She is excited to finally meet Lily, who James talks about a lot. She also agrees to place Jasmine where James suggested. She also knew about Sirius fancying the girl in question. Anyway, James’ mother is happy to accommodate the girls. Though in the letter, she makes sure to remind James to tell the girls to bring a nice dress for the Christmas ball. It would be a few days after Christmas day like it would usually be. And if they wanted to come, then they would need something to nice to wear.

James groans when he reads the part about the ball. The others (the Marauders, Lily, and Jaz) turn to look at him. He looks at Sirius who know what he is about to say. “It’s the ball.” He directs the next part directly to the girls. “Every year my family has a Christmas Ball a few days after Christmas. My mother wants to make sure that I tell you that if you want to come that you will need to bring some nice dresses to wear to the ball. Although, if you don’t have anything, I bet my mum could figure something out for guys.”

The girls squeal. They are real girly girls and love to dress up. Lily knows just the dresses to bring for both her and Jasmine, since she knows that her cousin probably doesn’t have much.

For the rest of the term, the girls excitedly talked about the ball and their excitement much to the boys’ annoyance. They would have rather they talk about anything else. Although, there were happy that the girls were excited about spending their Christmas at Potter Manor. Little did any of them know, it would be a Christmas that none of them would ever forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally finished this chapter. I originally wasn’t planning on it being this long, but well I really got into the whole Hogsmeade thing a bit more than I anticipated. I hope you enjoyed. I will try to get the next chapter done as soon as I can. It’s the chapter you have all been looking forward to.  
> Coming up next: Chapter 12 Christmas Tears
> 
> 😊 See you all later, Knk6700 😊


	12. Christmas Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This will be a Christmas none of them will ever forget

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter you have all almost been waiting for. That’s all I will say for now. Enjoy my wonderful readers. 😊
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 12: Christmas Tears

Before any of them knew it, it was the last week of classes. The term finished without incident really. Nothing big really happened.

The term finished, and the Marauders plus Lily were in the carriages heading toward the train that would take them back to Platform 9 ¾. The plan for the train was that since Lily still didn’t like James or Sirius very much, she would come find them when they were almost at the station. Otherwise, Jasmine would be sitting with the Marauders for the whole train ride. It would be a new thing for them. Once they got to the train station and said their goodbyes, James and Sirius would lead the girls to wherever Mr. and Mrs. Potter were waiting for them. From there, James told them they would probably take the Knight Bus or something to Potter Manor. Side-along apparation wouldn’t be the best with so many of them.

The train ride was very uneventful. The boys and Jaz just discussed random stuff. They even talked about some pranks they might pull after they come back. Lily did come and join them when they were about 5 minutes from the station. She took a seat next to her cousin and ignored the other people in the compartment. She could tolerate them, but that didn’t mean that she had to acknowledge them.

Soon enough, Jasmine, Lily, James, and Sirius had arrived outside of Potter Manor. Unlike the Potters and Sirius, the girls were not unfazed by Potter Manor. Lily and Jasmine were standing right out front frozen as the others forged ahead. They hadn’t noticed that the girls weren’t with them until they got to the door. James went to say something to them but noticed that they weren’t with them anymore. He turned around as saw that they were frozen, gaping at the Manor. They amazed at the size of the place. It was huge.

James rolled his eyes before telling his parents, “Go on in. Sirius and I will grab them.” His parents nodded and went it. James turned to his best friend/honorary brother with a smirk on his face. Sirius knew that smirk meant James had a plan. “Come on Pads, lets go scare them.” And Sirius was right. Of course, he didn’t necessarily agree with the plan, but it would be funny so why not.

The boys sneaked up around the still frozen girls. Then in unison jumped on them (James on Lily and Sirius on Jaz) and yelled, “Boo!” The girls immediately became unfrozen and screamed. The boys successfully scared them. Which is why they were currently laughing after getting off of the girls. The laughing stopped when the girls got their bearings back and started hitting them. All that could be heard now was “Ouch!”

Once the girls felt like the boys had suffered enough, they grabbed their bags that they had dropped and headed inside. The boys followed soon after them. Inside the manor, the girls were almost frozen in shock again. The whole house, inside and out, was decorated for Christmas. There were a lot of Christmas decorations, probably more than Jasmine had ever seen in her life, and her favorite holiday was Christmas. It was like a winter wonderland of sorts inside Potter Manor. And Jasmine couldn’t help but look around with glee written all over her face. This is the kind of Christmas she had dreamed of. Last years Christmas with Lily was great, but Jasmine had a feeling that this Christmas would be magical. Plus, Jasmine was so excited to be able to spend Christmas with her best friends James and Sirius, as well as her cousin.

While Jasmine was admiring the Christmas decorations, Sirius couldn’t help but admire Jasmine. He loved seeing her so happy. The look of pure glee on her face made a smile creep itself onto his own face. The smile didn’t go unnoticed by James who nudged Sirius. Instead of acknowledging James, though, Sirius just ignored him and continued to watch Jasmine.

Surprisingly, Lily also happened to see the smile on Sirius’ face. She wasn’t sure what he was smiling about until she followed his gaze to see that Sirius is watching her cousin. It is in that moment that Lily sees that Sirius fancies her cousin. Lily wasn’t entirely sure if he felt the same way until now. She had suspected that he had, but she didn’t really have any concrete proof. Her main reason for working with James Potter to set Jasmine and Sirius up was to show her cousin that a relationship with Sirius would work. She isn’t really sure if that actually happened or not, though. Lily hopes it that it will.

Before Lily can think about the subject anymore, Jasmine calls out to her. “Lils! Isn’t this place just bursting with Christmas? Can’t you just feel the Christmas Spirit?” Lily nods her head.

Jasmine, who had been across the room, heads over to her cousin. Then whispers to her, “I just have a feeling that something amazing is going to happen this Christmas. I mean I haven’t felt this much joy leading up to Christmas since before my dad died.”

Lily gives her cousin a solemn look. She can’t help but feel bad for her cousin. Lily really wishes that she could have been for her cousin during those Christmases after her dad, and Lily’s uncle, died. It was something Lily had learned to accept over the past year since Jasmine had come to live with her family. Though it was especially hard when Lily found her cousin crying or on the verge of tears. Lily wasn’t as affected by Petunia’s words as she used to be, but a few times she has been on the verge of tears. But really ever since that day that Sirius found her, Lily hasn’t really cried much over what Petunia has said to her. Although that doesn’t mean that her sister’s words didn’t hurt. Lily still wished that her sister still saw her as she did before the whole witch thing happened.

Lily was strong though, and in Jasmine’s opinion, much stronger than she was. Jasmine tried not to let Petunia’s words get to her, but several times when Petunia called her a freak, it would only remind Jasmine of what her mother used to tell her. Those memories would immediately bring tears to her eyes. Jasmine knows that it wasn’t her fault that her mother died, but sometimes she can’t help but take some of the blame. Jaz knew she should have told someone and then maybe her mother wouldn’t be dead.

Lily was the only one that could help Jasmine when she got so upset over Petunia’s words since she was the only one who actually knew the whole story. Jasmine would have told the Marauders the whole story, but she didn’t want their pity or the possibility of being made fun of. She didn’t entirely think that they would make fun of her, but she didn’t want to take any chances with their friendship, especially her friendship with Sirius. It was even more important now that Sirius never find out. She didn’t think she could bare the look of pity she believed would be on his face, especially since she finally realized how she felt about him. It was a terrible predicament that Jasmine was in.

Soon, though, James’ mother came to greet the girls. “Welcome to Potter Manor, girls. I am so happy to have some other females in the house for once. Boys can be a bit much sometimes.” The girl giggled at Mrs. Potter’s comment. “Let me show you two to your rooms. I think the boys would be more than happy to carry your bags for you both.” The cousins grinned before turning to the boys. They threw their bags at them. Luckily, they both managed to catch both bags. James caught Lily’s bag and Sirius caught Jasmine’s bag. Then they all headed up to the bedrooms, which were on the second floor.

The girls were a bit sad at first to find out that they weren’t going to be sharing bedrooms, but that quickly disappeared when they found out that Jasmine got the room next to Sirius’ room. When they were told this, Lily gave Jaz a knowing look, while Jasmine started to turn red.

After they were shown their rooms, the two girls went their separate ways to put their stuff away in their rooms for the time being. While Jasmine was busy hanging her clothes and Sirius was doing who knows what in his room, Lily snuck off to James’ room. He had some explaining to do. Plus, Lily came up with an idea earlier, and she would begrudgingly need his help.

Lily knocked on James door. When he opened the door, Lily pushed her way through. The room was much cleaner than she thought it would be. There were quidditch posters hung up on the wall, which she did expect to find. Other than that, James’ room was a typical male’s room.

Before James could speak up, Lily got straight to the point. “So, Sirius fancies my cousin.”

James was at a loss of words. He couldn’t confirm that without betraying his honorary brother’s trust, and he would never do that. But this was Lily, and she probably already knows since she wasn’t really asking.

Again, James didn’t get the chance to answer Lily. “I’m not asking. I know he likes Mina. I had my suspicions, but the way he was looking at her earlier confirmed it for me.” James just nodded not knowing what else to do or say. “Now I’m telling you this in confidence, Potter, so you better not tell Black. If you do, I will hunt you down. Got it?” James nodded his head vigorously. “Good. So, Mina fancies Sirius as well, which is why I have come to you, although I wish I didn’t.”

“Woah, woah, woah.” James had to stop her before she continued. “So, you’re telling me that Jazzy fancies Sirius back? That is amazing. We need to get them together. I told Sirius that they would be great together. He just won’t take a chance because…” James stops himself before he gives away his best friends secret.

Lily already knows what James was going to say, so she tells him, “Potter, don’t worry. I already know about Black’s home life.”

That shocks James. “Wh-wha-what?!” James stutters. He gathers his bearings before he starts his question again. “What do you mean you know? How could you possibly know? He doesn’t tell just anyone.”

Lily hesitates. She doesn’t want to break the promise that her and Sirius made, but she felt obligated to tell James. He already knew about Petunia anyway, so she might as well just tell him. “Well, he found me crying in the owlery one day in 4th year. I had gotten a letter from Petunia. I was a pretty awful letter. He comforted me instead of laughing at me. He listened to me and then to make me feel better he told me about the letters his parents had been sending him. He had been about to tell me about the abuse, but he trailed off. I figured that part out on my own. He didn’t tell you because we promised not to tell anyone about the incident.”

James was completely shocked. He was also a bit mad at his best friend, but he understood why he wasn’t about to break a promise with Lily. That girl can be really scary. Though, James was more shocked than anything. He couldn’t believe that Sirius had almost told Lily about the abuse before Sirius had told him. It infuriated him, but he could understand why Sirius did it. After pushing his feelings to the side for now, James finally said something. “Wow, just wow. I can’t believe it. You know you guys do have similarities in your home lives. I think you guys could actually be good friends.”

Before James could continue, Lily interrupted. “Yes, yes. I know. We could be great friends. Anyway, there is a reason I came to you Potter. I want your help to get them together over the break. Besides making a great couple, they need each other in a way that I can’t tell you.”

“What? Why can’t you tell me?” James was getting more confused as this conversation continued.

“It’s not my place to say. And don’t you dare ask Mina about it. She will tell you when she is ready.” Then to herself, Lily mumbled, “I hope.”

“Okay! Fine. I promise I won’t. I promise, Lily-Pad. Whatever Jazzy had been through, I hope that I will be able to understand later.”

“You probably will. Well after she confesses to Sirius. It’s the only way she would be willing to have a relationship with him. So, if we get them to confess what they have been holding back from each other, I am sure that everything else will naturally fall after.”

James started at the redhead in front of him. “Lily Evans! I didn’t know you could be so devious. I have some idea.”

For the rest of the night, Lily and James worked on several plans to get the couple together. They would try to implement these plans through out the week. It isn’t until a few days before Christmas that they finally have some kind of success, but not with one of their plans.

* * *

Jasmine and Lily were settling nicely at the Potters. Jasmine was actually a bit surprised to see that Lily was actually getting along with the boys. Actually, Jasmine saw her willingly hanging out with James, which Jaz found strange, but she was glad they were getting along. Jasmine was actually glad that Lily was getting to know him. This might mean that James might actually get his chance with Lily, but who knows.

It was now a few days Christmas. The day started out like all the other days of their break so far. It wasn’t until an owl happened to show up with a letter for the girl that everything went to hell. The boys had been out back playing quidditch or something when the letter came. It was addresses to both Lily and Jasmine. They had originally thought it was a letter from Lily’s parents, boy were they wrong. It was a letter from Petunia. In the letter were some awful things. These were things Lily had heard before and so had Jasmine, but when Lily looked over at her cousin, she could see the tears forming in her eyes. Before Lily got the chance to say anything, Jaz was gone. Lily knew she had gone to her room when she heard a door slam shut.

Lily was about to head up to the room, but then she had a brilliant thought. “ _What if Sirius comforted her instead of me? This is the perfect opportunity for everything to come out.”_

First, Lily went to check on her cousin. She wanted to make sure that she was in her room before she went and got the boys. Lily could hear her crying in the room, but when she tried the handle, she found it locked. That was something that Lily was concerned about. Jasmine never locked her out, but Lily assumed it was just locked because she didn’t want either of the boys to come in. Lily would have to let Sirius know that the door is locked then.

After leaving her cousin to cry, Lily ran to find the boys. And boy did she find them. Lily actually happened to run right into James as he was entering the house with Sirius.

“Woah, Lily-Pad, what’s the emergency?” James’ jokingly asked the girl.

“Thank god! Boys, something happened while you were out.” The shift from a joking manner to a concerned one was clear. Lily now had their full attention. “Well, an owl came with a letter for Mina and me. At first, we thought it was from my parents or something, but it wasn’t. It was a letter from my sister. I’m not sure how it got here, but there were some really nasty things that she said in the letter.”

It seemed that just now the boys had noticed that Jasmine was not with Lily, so before Lily could say anymore, Sirius asked, “Where is Mare?” Lily gave him a confused look, so he amended what he said. “Jaz, where is Jasmine?”

“I was just getting to that. After we read the letter, I turned to her and saw tears forming in her eyes. She is upstairs in her room crying. Tunnie’s words really hurt her, more so than they do me. I’ve just heard them all before now that it doesn’t affect me. Though, this time It is worse than usual.”

The worry in both boys was very clear. Sirius was the one to speak up, though. “What?! Why is it worse than usual?”

“Well, usually Mina will let me into the room or come straight to me for comfort. This time she locked the door and didn’t let me in. I’m really worried about her.”

“What can we do to help?” James questioned Lily as he pulled her into a side hug to comfort her. It was in this moment that Lily whispered the plan to James.

Once Lily was sure that James understood the plan, Lily answered him. “Maybe she will open up for one of you two?”

Sirius, of course, was the first to volunteer. “I’ll do it. I’m not really good with the whole comforting thing though, so I’m not sure how much I can do to make her feel better, Evans.”

“Just do what you did to comfort me that time in 4th year. You did a great job then,” Lily advised.

Before Sirius could think more about the fact that she just “revealed” their secret to James, Lily pushed him in the direction of the stairs. To which Sirius started climbing. It wasn’t until he got to Jasmine’s room that it finally dawned on him what Lily had done. He would have to deal with it later, though. Right now, his focus was on Jasmine. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer.

Meanwhile, James and Lily were still downstairs in the sitting (living) room. James was asking Lily about why the letter would upset Jaz so much. She hesitated before telling him. “Well, I guess by the end of the night you will probably know anyway because I don’t think Mina will be able to keep it a secret for much longer after she tell Sirius.” Lily thought about how she wanted to phrase this. “Okay, I really hope Mina won’t kill me for telling you instead of letting her tell you herself. I’m the only one that actually knows the full story.” Lily paused. “Um, how much has she actually told you about why she came to live with her? Also how much has she told you about her parents?”

“Oh um, wow. I remember that she hasn’t really told us much. She mentioned when on that first train ride with us that she was an orphan as well as a half-blood with her father being a wizard. She also told us about Beauxbatons, and her father’s connection to the school. I don’t think she has mentioned her mother since the orphan comment, but she did mention her father again around Halloween that first year. She told us that he would help her with her costumes. That’s it though. Wow. We really don’t know much about Jazzy’s parents.”

Lily didn’t give James the chance to contemplate that thought. “Oh wow. I really would have thought she might have told you more. Well I guess there is a lot that I need to fill you in then. As you have realized by now, Mina loved her father very much. She was a real daddy’s girl. So, when he died, it devastated her. The worst part was that she had just started at Beauxbatons. She was only 11 when she lost him. I really wanted to be there for her, but I had just started at Hogwarts. So, my parents thought it better that I just stay in school for the time being.”

“So that is why you were so upset at the beginning of first year. I always wondered.”

“Hush. No interrupting. And yes, that is why. Anyway, I made sure that I saw Mina at least once every summer after that year. She has always been like a sister to me, so when she told me what her mother was doing, it hurt me so much. I really wish she had told me sooner, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Anyway, Mina, really appreciated that you two came over for her birthday because she needed the distraction. Her last birthday, her 15th, didn’t go so well. That was when she discovered that her mother was dead.” James gasped. He couldn’t believe how much their Jazzy had actually been through. He knew Sirius would be there for her though.

“Anyway, my parents and I were there to celebrate with her for her birthday. After we found her, my mother, Mina’s mum’s sister, was so distraught. My mum was so upset. What she didn’t know, though was the whole story. Even I didn’t know the whole story. Mina had never told me what had actually been going on in her house after her father had died. The only reason that I know now was because she asked me to sit in on the interview that she had with the police. She told them everything. Apparently, her mother had become an alcoholic over the years. She had been continually drinking about since Mina’s father died. And when her mother was drunk, she was mean.” Lily glanced over at James to make sure that he was still listening. She saw the horrified look on his face and quickly continued the story. “No, she never got physical with Mina as far as I am aware, but she was emotionally abusive. She was always telling Mina she was ugly or stupid or something else mean. Her mother would only do this when she was drunk though, which doesn’t make it any better. I just feel so bad for Mina. I wish she had told me sooner. So, the reason that Mina is hurt so much more by Tunnie’s words is because it reminds her of her mother sometimes. I feel so bad and usually she will let me comfort her, but by locking the door I’m pretty sure that she didn’t want to see me. I tried to convince myself that it was just because she didn’t either of you barging in, but she knew you were outside. She knew I would be right behind her.” Now tears started to show up in Lily’s eyes. Her voice also started to waver, which James took notice to. When he saw she was on the verge of tears, he pulled her into a hug and comforted her.

Meanwhile, Sirius had finally gotten into Jasmine’s room. It took a lot of pleading and begging for her to open the door, but she finally did. Sirius was happy that she opened the door, but that went away as soon as he saw her face. Her eyes were bloodshot with tears still threatening to fall. Her cheeks were tear streaked. She had been crying for a while now.

Sirius’ heart melted when he saw her. He felt so bad for Jasmine. He had to comfort her, there was no other option. Sirius was determined to make this girl feel better, so he took Lily’s advice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know you all must hate me for the cliffhanger. Anyway, I was thinking as I was writing this chapter that I haven’t actually thought of a ship name for Jasmine and Sirius. And I think they deserve one, so if anyone has any suggestions, be sure to comment. I’ll let you all know which one I liked the best in the next chapter. Coming up next: Chapter 13: Confessions
> 
> 😉😊 See you all soon I hope, Knk6700 😊😉


	13. Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasmine is crying and Sirius is going to comfort her, but is there more to it than that? What will be revealed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N The “winner” is Sazzy. I just liked it the best out of the few that I saw from all the sites that I have posted this on (I have it on like 5 different sites). This came from SLYTHERIN QUEEN 364 days until next book on Quotev.  
> Also, note this chapter continues directly after the last one. (I added a little last chapter to be sure you remember what happened). Now on with the chapter I am sure you have all been waiting for since like the beginning.
> 
> (Ps I’m sorry for not finishing this sooner. I originally wanted to post this before I started school back up again, but I just didn’t have the time and my computer just went stupid. It was not a great time.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 13: Confessions

_Previously:_

_Meanwhile, Sirius had finally gotten into Jasmine’s room. It took a lot of pleading and begging for her to open the door, but she finally did. Sirius was happy that she opened the door, but that went away as soon as he saw her face. Her eyes were bloodshot with tears still threatening to fall. Her cheeks were tear streaked. She had been crying for a while now._

_Sirius’ heart melted when he saw her. He felt so bad for Jasmine. He had to comfort her, there was no other option. Sirius was determined to make this girl feel better, so he took Lily’s advice._

* * *

Jasmine let Sirius into the room and shut the door behind him. She relocked it before walking over to the bed to sit next to Sirius who was already sitting on the bed. She couldn’t find her voice to say anything to him, though. Luckily, Sirius spoke up first. “Oh, Mare! I don’t know why you are crying, but maybe I can help if you tell me.”

Jasmine hesitated. This is what she got for locking Lily out. Did she really want to tell him the whole story? Jasmine’s resolve wasn’t very strong at the moment, so she gave in after seeing the pleading look in Sirius’ eyes. She would tell Sirius everything. She just hoped he would understand and wouldn’t judge her for anything. And most of all, she hoped that this wouldn’t change how he saw her. She was still the same girl, just a little more broken inside than he knew. “Well, I’m sure Lily sent you up here.” Her voice was still shaky from the crying, but with every word her voice became steadier. “So, you must know about the mean letter from Petunia.” Sirius nodded. “Well, I’m not really upset with Petunia because well I’ve never really liked her. It’s just that the words remind me of my mother.” Then Jasmine took a deep breath and told Sirius everything from how her father died when she was 11 to how her mother changed after her father’s death. She told him what happened on her 15th birthday and how she was so happy that he was there for her 16th to comfort her unknowingly. And through the whole thing, Sirius listened and held the poor girl.

It was when Jaz was thanking him for coming to her birthday that she saw Sirius wince. This action confused her but mainly it worried her. Jaz was afraid that this was a sign that his opinion of her was changing or that he was about to say something mean. And Jasmine couldn’t handle that, so she started to scoot out of his arms and further down on the bed.

At this action, Sirius started to get worried. He thought that he did something wrong. He thought that Jasmine was going to close up on him again, and Sirius wasn’t sure if he could handle that. So, he voiced his thoughts. “Mare? What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong? If I did, I really didn’t mean to. Please don’t shut me out. I want to be here for you.” Sirius wanted to add that he loved her, but he knew now wasn’t the right time for that.

At Sirius’ words, Jasmine stopped moving away from him. She realized that he didn’t mean to flinch but yet she still wanted to know why. Then Jasmine thought, “ _How could he possibly be there for me in the way that I need if he can’t really understand what I’ve been through? Lily has tried over and over, but she can only do so much. She really only partially understands because of Petunia. She doesn’t understand the guilt I feel for my own mother’s death.”_

Jasmine was pulled out of her thoughts when she felt an arm wrap around her. She looked over to her right and saw that Sirius had moved to sit next to her again. Jasmine saw the look in his eyes, and she almost felt like he would actually understand what she had been through. Jaz wasn’t sure how she knew, but she just did. So, she voiced some of her previous thoughts. “Sirius, there is so much more I want to tell you, but first there is one thing that is bothering me.” Sirius gestured for her to continue on. “Why did you flinch when I was thanking you for coming over for my 16th birthday?”

Sirius hesitated, but he knew now that Jaz wouldn’t see him any different. He knew now that she could at least relate with the abuse he experienced, even though hers was emotional while his was physical. So, Sirius made up his mind. “Well, Jasmine, that day something awful happened.” He looked up and saw worry written all over Jasmine’s face. “Before I go into what happened, first I have to tell you about my family. I know I haven’t told you much, but that was because I didn’t want to drag you down with my hell of a life, especially after you told us about you being an orphan. I didn’t want to bring my up my family life and parents when you didn’t have yours. I guess I also just didn’t know if you would understand, but now I know you would.”

Sirius paused. He was about to tell the girl had fancied and loved about the worst years of his life. He needed to prepare himself. He took a deep breath and continued. “You’re not the only one who has been abused since you were 11.” Jasmine gasped but didn’t interrupt. “You see, my whole family has been in Slytherin, even my younger brother Regulus. I was and still am the only Black to be sorted into Gryffindor. It was after that fateful day that I got the first letter from my parents about how there would be repercussions when I got home at Christmas. I just tossed that aside as I would get grounded or something stupid. I knew they would be angry, so I just brushed it aside. That Christmas break was the last Christmas I spent with my parents and brother. It was over that break that the abuse started. Sure, I got several mean letters, but I had expected that. What I hadn’t expected was my parents to hit me repeatedly when I got home for Christmas.”

Sirius paused because he could feel the tears threatening to fall down his face. He had to hold it together for Jasmine, though. He didn’t want to her to see him cry. But he couldn’t stop the tears. As soon as the tears started falling, Sirius felt the girl beside him pull him into a hug. Then he proceeded to cry into her shirt.

It was about 15 minutes later before Sirius collected himself enough to continue on with the story. Before he could though, Jasmine said, “You don’t have to tell me anymore Sirius. I know how hard it is to open up about abuse.” But Sirius felt like needed to tell her the rest of the story.

“No, it’s fine, Mare. I need to finish.” She nodded and let him continue. “I didn’t tell anyone about the abuse. The guys all knew about my parents and the letters they sent, but I didn’t tell them what happened over the break. Actually, it wasn’t until 4th year that I actually sort of told someone what was happening at home. It was at the end of the year, right before we were to go home for the summer that I found your cousin in the owlery crying because of a letter her sister sent her. I then comforted her and didn’t exactly reveal that I was getting abused, but Lily figured it out anyway. She then comforted me, and for a while we just sat in a corner of the owlery crying and comforting each other. Afterwards, we swore we wouldn’t tell anyone. I mean I hadn’t even told James about the abuse yet, so I couldn’t just go up to him and tell him about what had happened. He would have asked too many questions. That’s why she never told you, Mare.”

Jasmine was staring at him with wide eyes. All thoughts of Petunia’s letter were gone as she learned that her cousin knew about what Sirius had been through. Jaz was a bit upset that her cousin never told her, especially after she told Lily about her feelings for the boy. Though, Jasmine understood why Lily never told her. She could see that Lily knew it wouldn’t matter as much if it wasn’t Sirius who told her about the abuse he suffered. But that didn’t mean that Jasmine couldn’t still be a bit mad at Lily.

Those thoughts were pushed aside as Sirius continued with his story. “After that moment with Lily, I realized that I needed to tell someone. So, soon after I ended up telling James everything. He was really pissed off that my parents would do such a thing. He even suggested that I don’t go home and instead live with him, but I couldn’t. You see, I had to try and protect my brother. I didn’t entirely think that my parents would hit him, but if their focus were more on me, then maybe Regulus wouldn’t be pushed further into the Dark Arts. I wanted to protect him from their influence, but I don’t think I did the best job. I just wish I could have protected him more. And now that I don’t live at home anymore, I feel so guilty for leaving him there with them. I never wanted it to end up like this, but it did, and now I can’t do anything to change it.”

Jasmine could relate to that guilt. She felt the same guilt about not doing enough for her mother. And she wanted to tell Sirius that much, but there was still one thing that he hadn’t told her. “Um, Sirius,” He looked up at her with his bloodshot eyes. “So, um, what happened when you went home after my birthday.”

Sirius flinched again. “Well, my parents didn’t exactly know I left that day, which is why I arrived with James. I went with his parents to your house. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it over. I had snuck out before anyone woke up. I had planned to sneak back in after everyone was asleep, but that part of the plan didn’t happen.

“I had taken the Knight Bus home, but when I walked in my parents were waiting for me. Apparently, they had found out that I snuck out. Usually they didn’t check in on me, so I thought I would be safe. I don’t know why they decided to check that day, but they did, and they found out I had snuck out again. When I saw them, I resigned myself to the beating I knew I would be getting, but instead of actually hitting me, my parents started to throw curses at me. And they weren’t curses that would only harm me a little. These were really dangerous curses. They landed a few on my arms and such before I made a run for it to my room. I had to at least get some of my stuff. So, I hurriedly threw as much as I could into my school chest. Then I managed to drag it down the stairs and out the door. My parents managed to land several more curses. By the time I made it out of the house, I had several cuts that were bleeding. I didn’t stop though. I had to get out of there before they tried to kill me or something. I managed to call the Knight Bus. Just as I got on the bus, I heard my mother disown me. I didn’t care though. I was just glad to get out of there alive. I immediately went to James’. I knew he would be there for me. When I got there, I managed to knock on the door several times before passing out in front of the door. That is where James found me. Luckily, Mrs. Potter is talented with healing spells and fixed me up as best she could. Ever since then, I’ve been living here. I just wish that I hadn’t left Regulus.”

Jasmine looked at the boy beside her. He looked so broken. “I know how you feel Sirius,” Jasmine mumbled quietly to herself, but it was loud enough that Sirius still heard it. This perked his attention.

“What?” That was all Sirius managed to get out. He wanted to say more, but he didn’t think they were all that nice. He knew the girl would understand, but how could she possibly understand how he guilty he felt about leaving his brother alone in that environment.

Jasmine wasn’t surprised that Sirius managed to hear what she had said. She figured it would be the best way to bring up her own guilt. “I know how you feel. The guilt you have about leaving your brother. I know how that feels.” Jasmine glanced over at Sirius, who just gave her a confused look. “I have the same guilt about my mother. I feel so guilty sometimes about how I left her. I could have told someone, anyone. I could have gotten her help. I knew she had a problem with alcohol and still I did nothing. And as a result, she died.”

“Oh, Mare.” Sirius couldn’t believe what he was hearing. After everything that Jasmine’s mother had put her through, Jasmine still felt guilty about her death. It hurt Sirius to hear her say that. Jaz’s mother didn’t deserve Jasmine’s guilt, and Sirius said as much. “Mare, your mother doesn’t deserve your guilt. She did nothing but hurt you.”

“But, Sirius, don’t you see? It’s like with you and Regulus. He doesn’t deserve your guilt either. He chose his path just like you chose yours. He can make his own choices, Pads. He isn’t you.” Jasmine tried to make Sirius see the truth.

“But I can’t help but feel that I didn’t do enough for him…” Then the connection dawned on Sirius. “Oh, um wow. Yeah, I guess it is similar. They don’t really deserve our guilt, Mare.”

“But that doesn’t mean we can just suddenly stop feeling guilty.” Jasmine finished saying what she knew Sirius was about to say next. Which is why Jasmine was getting a nod from Sirius in response.

For about 10 minutes, they both sat in silence, with Jasmine leaning her head on Sirius shoulder. They were taking in everything that they had just learned about the other. And both coming to the realization that their own respective reasonings for not going out with each other, weren’t really valid. Though, they knew that right now wasn’t the time to confess these feelings. They were both still emotionally vulnerable, and not in all that great of places right now. They would confess their feelings when they were ready to, which Sirius decided would be tomorrow. Now that everything was out on the table, Sirius didn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t tell Jasmine how he really felt about her. He didn’t even care if she didn’t feel the same because he knew there was no way that things would suddenly become awkward between them, not after what they have just told each other. They would need each other whether as friends or as more they just would.

After 10 minutes, Sirius broke the silence, “Guess were just a couple of broken people.” He tried to make it sound like a joke, but it the crack in his voice ruined it.

Jasmine let out a pity laugh. “I guess we are, but Sirius,” Jasmine said looking up at him. “I’m glad that we have each other to help put the pieces back together.” She smiled before pulling him down to lay down on the bed with her. She cuddled into him and soon she was fast asleep. Sirius watched her for a few minutes before falling asleep himself. Though, they forgot that the door was still locked.

So, with the door still being locked, James and Lily had no way of knowing if they were okay or not. They really wanted to check on them, especially after not hearing them talking anymore from outside the door. They didn’t know what to think. Luckily, James’ mother was home, so he went to get her. She opened the door using _Alohomora_. And in the room, the three found the two sleeping. They were cuddling, which Lily and Mrs. Potter both found absolutely adorable. They cooed as they slowly closed the door and locked it again. They didn’t want the two being suspicious when they woke up.

**A/N The end… I hope you enjoyed the story.**

**Just kidding. I wanted to end the chapter here, but it was too short for my liking. I would have posted this sooner, but school has been really hectic and stressful. So, I’m hoping that that this will tide you all over for about another 3 weeks. Or maybe less, depending on how much I am able to write this week.**

* * *

It was the evening after everything came out, which meant that it was Christmas Eve. Sirius was in a great mood. At first, he was still a bit unsure whether Jasmine felt the same way as he did, but after their “cuddle session” he was sure she felt the same. Now he had already decided that he was going to tell Jaz about his feelings for her today, but he had still been a bit hesitant. But now he was just determined, which is why he was on his way to Jasmine’s room. He had found out from Lily that that is where she was. The smirk that she gave him didn’t go unnoticed by Sirius. He was sure that Lily had figured out he fancied her cousin. He wouldn’t be surprised if she had somehow set up the whole thing yesterday. Lily Evans was more devious than Sirius originally thought.

Sirius reached Jasmine’s room and knocked on the door. He heard her to come in. Inside, Sirius found Jasmine lying on her bed reading a book. She didn’t even look up from her book to see who it was. All she did was hold up a finger. Jaz wanted to finish the chapter she was on. Once she had, Jaz put her bookmark in the book and put it away. Then Jasmine looked up to see who it was. She was a bit surprised to see it was Sirius. He had a huge grin on his face as she looked up. It was contagious as she started smiling back at him. “Hey, Pads! What’s up?”

Suddenly Sirius started to get nervous. So, instead of getting straight to what he wanted to say, Sirius told her, “Oh, nothing. Just wanted to see how you were doing after yesterday.”

The smile on Jasmine’s face dropped a little bit. “I’m fine, thanks for asking. I really appreciate it.” The smile she gave him made Sirius’ insides turn to goop. He couldn’t believe what this girl was doing to him. “So, is there anything else that you wanted? Because if there isn’t, I kind of want to get back to my book.” She held up the book for him to see.

Sirius who had still been standing by the door, walked over to Jasmine’s bed, and sat on the edge of the bed. He was still working on finding the courage that he had before he came in here, so he stalled. “What are you reading?”

“Oh, um, nothing. It’s just one of my favorite muggle romance novels.” Jasmine tried to hide her blush from the boy, but it was too late.

Sirius saw the blush, which is just the thing that he needed to bring his confidence back. “It sounds great.” Sirius closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was about to continue when he felt a pair of lips on his own. His eyes snapped open. Sirius saw that it was Jasmine, so he melted into the kiss and kissed the girl back. It didn’t last long, but it was still an amazing kiss.

Jasmine was the first to speak after the kiss. “Sorry. You just looked so cute. I, um, hope you don’t mind.” Jasmine still wasn’t entirely 100% sure how Sirius felt about her, but she didn’t regret kissing him at all.

It took several seconds before Sirius was able to collect his thoughts enough to say something. “No, no. I didn’t mind at all. Actually, before you kissed me, I was about to tell you that I really like you. I’m sure you feel the way as you just kissed me.”

“Oh, um, wow. Yeah, I really like you Sirius,” Jasmine confirmed. Then she leaned in for another kiss. This kiss lasted a bit longer than the last one, but not much longer because Jasmine had some questions for Sirius. When she broke the kiss, Sirius pouted, but Jaz didn’t lean in for another kiss. “No, Sirius. We can kiss again later.” To which Sirius responded by wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Jasmine nudged him in response, but he still got her to laugh. “Stop that. I have some things to ask you first.”

Sirius realized where she was going and dropped the silly act. He wanted to kiss her again, but he wouldn’t do it if she didn’t want to as well. And, if Sirius was being honest with himself, he wanted to talk first as well. “Yeah, I think we need to talk too.”

Jasmine gave him a thankful smile. “Okay, so just to confirm, we are dating, right? Because if we are, I hope you got me an amazing Christmas gift.” Jasmine couldn’t help but to tease the boy a little.

“Geez, Mare. Of course, we’re dating. And how dare you assume I didn’t get you an amazing Christmas present.” Sirius mockingly clutched his heart in mock hurt. “My turn!” Jaz gave him an amused smile but didn’t interrupt. “Will you be my date to the Potters’ Annual Christmas Ball?”

Jaz gave him a big grin. “Of course, I will, you dolt. We are dating now. Why wouldn’t I go to the ball with my boyfriend?”

Sirius grinned at the word boyfriend. “Boyfriend, huh? Okay, I’m glad, girlfriend.” Sirius also couldn’t help but to tease Jasmine as well.

“Okay, now that that is sorted, I have to ask, when did you realize you fancied me?”

“After ‘the prank.’ I realized how much I actually liked you after you ignored me. It was pretty lonely during that time. I started going mad toward the end. I was so happy when you started talking to me. I didn’t tell you sooner because of, well, what I told you yesterday.”

“Oh, Pads.” Jasmine felt a bit guilty now. “I had no idea. I’m so sorry. You still deserved it, though.”

“Yes, I did. I know I shouldn’t have told Snape that, but it wasn’t like I forced him to go through with it. It was his choice in the end.”

Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Yes, in the end it was, but you still shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Yeah.” Sirius hesitated about telling her about the letter, but realized it was stupid to hold that back from her now. “Well, it didn’t help that I was mad when I did it. I had gotten a letter from my parents earlier that day.”

“Oh Sirius, I am so sorry. I wish I had known. Not that I wouldn’t have still been mad at you, but I would have probably gone easier on you.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mare. It’s in the past.”

Then something dawned on Jasmine. “Wait a minute. You lied to me.” Jasmine stoop up and started pacing.

Sirius, on the other hand, just looked so confused. “What are you talking about?”

“The second incident that happened at the end of last year. You told me that ‘I’m bored’ was code for pranking Snape, but it wasn’t, was it?”

“Oh, um, that. Yeah. Sorry about that, love, but I just wasn’t ready to tell you about my home life. The real reason James even did what he did was because he was trying to distract me. He didn’t want me thinking about what awaited me when I got home. I’m sorry, Mare.”

Jasmine could tell he really felt bad about lying to her. “I get it, Pads. I really do. I just wish you had told me sooner.”

“Anyway, now that that is out of the way, when did you realize your feelings for me?”

“Not too long ago. Well, actually I’ve had a little crush on you for a while, but it grew into something more when we were planning that prank earlier this year. You know, the prank that we came up with together.”

“Yeah I remember,” Sirius assured her. “It was a great prank that we somehow got away with. But really? Why then?”

Jasmine sat back down on the bed next to Sirius before responding. “Well, I don’t know if you have noticed, but you and James have changed since my birthday. And I couldn’t help but notice the change. You guys aren’t bullying as much. It was a refreshing change. Also, you just seemed so much happier this year. Just looking at you it was like you had a weight lifted off your shoulders, which I know now that you did.”

“Oh, wow. I didn’t realize.” Sirius thought back over the past several months and saw what Jasmine meant. “Wow. We really haven’t been picking on as many people as before. I guess moving with James really did have more of an impact than I originally thought it would.”

“Now that you have realized, you better not revert back to your old tendencies,” Jasmine ordered. Then she gave him a peck on the cheek.

“Don’t worry, Mare. I don’t plan on it. And I’m not letting you go either.” Sirius happened to notice that Jasmine’s shoulders had relaxed. “What? Did you think I was going to break up with you so soon? I’ve liked you for so long Jaz, I don’t plan on trying to ruin this.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that I’ve heard the rumors around Hogwarts. I don’t want to be just another girl.”

“Oh, Jaz, most of those rumors aren’t even true. In truth, I’m not a ladies’ man. I mean I’ve snogged a few girls over the years, but nothing further. I’ve never really had a girlfriend. I just didn’t want to bring them into the hell that was my life. I didn’t want to let anyone in really. With you it’s different. I’ve already let you in. Plus, I don’t plan on letting you go. You are probably the best thing that has ever happened to me, Jaz.” That earned him a kiss. This time the kiss ended up turning into a full-on snogging session.

They were in the middle of snogging when James barged in and interrupted them. He wanted to tell them that they were planning on opening one gift each like he did every year. Though, when he saw them kissing, he yelled dramatically, “My eyes, my eyes!”

The couple broke apart to glare at the boy for interrupting them. They did not appreciate his interruption or comment. So, they both agreed with one look that they were going to get revenge on him. They both got up and chased him around the Manor. They caught up to him at the Christmas tree where the gifts were. It was in one of the many sitting (living) rooms within the Manor. Already in the room, were James’ parents and Lily, so it was kind of embarrassing for Jasmine and Sirius to have caught up to James in front of them. So, there they were on top of James in front of everyone. They didn’t realize it at first, but once they did, they got off of James.

Mrs. Potter spoke up first. “Hello you three. What was that all about?”

Neither Sirius nor Jasmine spoke up. They just glared at James, who everyone turned their attention toward. James just has a mischievous look on his face. “Well, I was going to get these two and instead I found them snogging.” The two in question glared more at James, but the damage was done. Everyone was staring at them now, which caused the two to blush.

Lily spoke up next, “So, you two finally go together. I’m happy for you both.”

James’ parents were also happy for the new couple, but they made sure to tell them that they are not to close the door if they are alone in a room together. This caused a blush to appear on both of their faces again.

Then they moved on from the subject by moving to the subject of having each of them open up one gift each. It was a tradition in the Potter family. Jasmine had never done this before, but she was excited to open a gift early. Jaz already knew that she was going to open Sirius gift. She really wanted to know what his amazing gift was. She wanted to see if it would live up to her standards of what an amazing gift should be.

Sirius had the same thoughts as Jasmine, so he was going to open her gift for him. He was excited to see what she got him. He also knew that no matter what she got him that he would love it because it was from Jasmine. He would love anything that she got for him.

So, they each grabbed one gift from under the tree to open. Jasmine and Sirius asked the other for their gifts, to which they gave the other their gift. Jasmine’s gift to Sirius was much bigger than the gift that Sirius got for Jasmine, but the amazingness of the gift would matter on size but on the thoughtfulness of the gift.

Sirius opened his gift from Jaz first. Under the wrapping paper was a rectangular package, which Sirius ripped open. Inside was the best gift Sirius had ever gotten. It was a black leather jacket. He has always wanted one, especially after he first saw one. He never got one before, though because of his home life prior to him running away. He knew if his parents ever saw the jacket, they would have torn it apart and burned it. So, he never got one if fear of it getting ruined and taken away by his parents.

When Sirius took the leather jacket out of the box it was in, he found his name on the back. Except it wasn’t his actual name. The name on the back was Padfoot. It was such a thoughtful gift. Sirius loved it so much that he leaned over and gave Jaz a kiss on the cheek in thanks. Jasmine blushed.

“Mare, this is amazing. I’ve always wanted a leather jacket too.”

“I know, Pads. I saw this and I just knew I had to get it for you. It wasn’t hard to have them add the name to the back either. I hope you like it, Sirius.”

“Like it? No, I love it, Mare. I absolutely love it. This is such an amazing gift. It almost tops the gift I got you, but I still think that my gift will be better.”

“Well there is only one way to find out, isn’t there, Pads?” Then, Jaz proceeded to open the gift Sirius got her. After removing the wrapping paper, she also found a box, but it was much smaller than the one that Sirius’ gift came in. She opened the box and gasped. Inside the box was a small music box. On top of the music box there was a beautiful jasmine flower.

Jasmine carefully took music box out very carefully. It was even more beautiful out of the box it was in. The music box itself want very big. It wasn’t even very tall even with the jasmine on top of it. But there was a strange compartment in the back.

Sirius saw the girl looking at the strange compartment in the back of the music box, so he felt the need to explain. “Mare, it’s a special music box. It’s actually a magical music box.” He now had the girl’s full attention as he explained to her what the shop owner had originally told him when he bought it in Hogsmeade. “So, the compartment in the back is where you cast spells. The music box plays different songs for different spells. I would show you, but I don´t exactly have my wand on me right now.”

Jasmine gave him a confused look before remembering that Sirius’ birthday was last month and that meant that he was 17 now. He could legally do magic outside of Hogwarts now. “That’s okay Pads. You can show me later. I love it anyway. This is an amazing gift. Where did you even find it?”

“In that music store we stopped in when we were alone together that one Hogsmeade trip, remember?” Jasmine nodded her head. She was surprised he had somehow managed to keep this from her with her finding out about it. “Well, I happened to notice it while you were in the back of the store looking at something. When the store owner told me what it was and what it did, I knew it would be the perfect gift for you. So, I bought it right then and there. I was able to hide the bag under my coat luckily. I’m really glad you didn’t notice.

Jasmine gave a little chuckle. “Yeah. Me too. It would have ruined the surprise if I had seen it.” Then Jasmine gave him a kiss on the cheek and whispered into Sirius ear, “Thank you for the gift, Sirius. This is the best gift that I have ever gotten.”

When she pulled away, a blush could be seen on Sirius’ face. Jasmine wasn’t the only one that noticed it either, because soon James was teasing the boy about it. That’s when the two of them remembered that they were not alone. They had drifted into their own little world there while opening each other’s gifts. But now James’ teasing had brought them back. They were a little disappointed, but they also wanted to see what gifts the others had chosen to open and what they had gotten. So, they turned their attention back to everyone else in the room and set their own gifts off to the side.

Jasmine was about to get up from her spot on the floor next to Sirius to go see what her cousin had gotten, but Sirius pulled her into him before she could do anything of the sort. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled Jasmine into his side so that they could cuddle on the floor. Jasmine didn’t really mind the side hug turned cuddle. She was actually kind of glad to have Sirius next to her, especially now that they were together. Jasmine wanted to get as much of Sirius as she possibly could. Although, she had wanted to go talk to her cousin, that thought was wiped from her mind as soon as Sirius pulled her into his embrace. The pure warmth that he was emitting was enough to prevent her from ever leaving his arms. The warm was so nice and comforting, as well as Sirius’ arm around her. It was so nice and comfy that Jasmine actually fell asleep in his arms. Sirius didn’t realize at first until James said something to him.

“Hey, Pads, looks like your girl is enjoying herself.” James teased his best friend. 

Sirius turned to Jasmine to see what James could possibly be talking about. When he saw Jaz asleep in his arms, he couldn’t help but smile. She just looked absolutely adorable asleep on him. She also looked so peaceful that Sirius wasn’t about to disturb her slumber. He didn’t want to wake the sleeping girl, so he tried to not move as much as he could.

It was about half an hour later that James’ parents noticed that Jasmine had fallen asleep on Sirius. “It is getting late. Why don’t you all head up to bed? The presents will all still be here in the morning. We will open them after we all eat breakfast tomorrow morning.” James’ mother said to the children.

James was the first to stand up to leave the room. He offered Lily a hand to help her up off the ground. He wasn’t exactly expecting her to actually take his hand, but he thought he would offer some help anyway. Surprisingly, though, Lily actually accepted James’ help to help her off the floor. She gave him a smile of thanks before dropping his hand and heading up to her room. James just stared after her, dumfounded. He couldn’t understand that girl if he tried. One minute she hates his guts, the next she is accepting his help and actually talking to him. James knew that Lily Evans was probably going to be the end of him. If he didn’t end up with her, he didn’t know what he would do, but it would probably be something really stupid. So, James made it his mission to try even harder to get Lily Evans to be his girl.

With that last thought, James left the room and went up to his room to get ready for bed. That left just James’ parents, Sirius and a still sleeping Jasmine. Sirius spoke up first. “Mrs. Potter, do you think you could help me carry Jaz up to her room. I don’t want to wake her up. She had such an eventful day yesterday. She needs the sleep.”

Mrs. Potter gave the boy she saw as another son as smile. “Of course, Sirius.”

So, the two of them carefully got Jasmine off of Sirius without waking her up. Then Mrs. Potter used the locomotion charm ( _Locomotor Jasmine_ ) to that it would be easier to carry the girl up the stairs. Then, with Sirius’ help, they went up the stairs and into Jasmine’s room. They gently placed her onto her bed. Sirius thanked Mrs. Potter for the help. “Thanks for the help. I’m going to tuck her in and then head off to my room and get some sleep.

James’ mom nodded. Before she left the room, though, she gave Sirius a stern warning. “I better find you in your own bed tonight and not in Jasmine’s young man.”

The warning scared Sirius a bit. He didn’t want to find out what would happen if she didn’t find him in his own room, so Sirius responded by vigorously nodding his head. “For sure. I will be in my own room in a few minutes.”

Thankfully, Mrs. Potter believed him and left the room without another word. After she was gone, Sirius turned his attention back to the girl sleeping on the bed. Sirius had pulled back her covers before they had placed her on the bed. So, Sirius busied himself with tucking the girl he loved in.

Sirius kissed the top of Jasmine’s head for a kiss goodbye. He was about to leave when he heard Jasmine mumble, “Sirius don’t go.”

Sirius, who was halfway to the bedroom door at this point, turned around and looked at the sleeping girl. He walked back over to her to make sure that she was still asleep. Because if he didn’t, Sirius would be wondering if Jasmine had been awake that whole time. Thus, he went to check on her and found that she was still asleep.

Finding that she was still asleep, Sirius made his way out of the room again. This time with an even bigger smile on his face because he knew that Jasmine was dreaming about him. And again, Jasmine unknowingly tempted him. “No, Sirius, stay. You don’t have to go.”

Sirius was sure the girl was still asleep, but the offer was still so tempting. He would have loved to just climb up into the bed with Jasmine and cuddle with her all night, but Sirius had promised Mrs. Potter that she would find him in his own bed the next morning. And Sirius wasn’t about to disobey orders, even though he knew that Mrs. Potter would never hurt him, at least not on purpose. Still, he knew if she found him in Jasmine’s room, there would be a punishment, and he couldn’t risk it, especially if that meant that he might not be able to spend as much time with Jasmine.

So, Sirius sulked out of the room, wishing he could stay longer. He headed straight for his own room and got ready for bed. Soon after he was in bed, he fell asleep. The last thought on his mind being that he couldn’t wait to spend Christmas with Jasmine, his new girlfriend, the girl that he loved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N And they lived happily ever after…. (THE END) (Keep Scrolling)
> 
> JK (Just Kidding). Don’t worry this is not the end of Jasmine’s and Sirius’ story. I’m probably going to finish up their sixth year in this “book.” Not sure about a sequel. Let me know what you guys think. Let me know if you would like a sequel focused on their seventh year, which would include a lot more Jily as well as Sazzy. If enough people want that, I will definitely write it at some point after I finish this story first. 😊
> 
> 😉 Hope you enjoyed, Knk6700 😉


	14. The Magic of Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas magic is everywhere, even inside Potter Manor. What will Christmas magic bring about for these four teens? Will they find out that that Christmas gifts can bring out what isn't necessarily hidden?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Ah yes. Another new chapter. I feel like I was meant to wait this long to post this chapter now. I mean the fact that it is December now and Christmas is actually coming up, it just seems fitting to write this chapter (as well as the next two) now. Anyway, I would like to warn you all that this chapter is now very dialogue heavy at times. I just felt it better to describe their Christmas gifts than to use dialogue to do so. But I am sorry if you wanted more dialogue. Enjoy 😊
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 14: The Magic of Christmas

When Jasmine woke up the next day, she was surprised to see that she was in her room in her bed. The last thing that she remembered was that she was enjoying her boyfriend’s warmth and hold, which probably meant that she fell asleep on him. She was thankful that he had taken her to bed though. She didn’t know what she would have done if she had woken up on the couch still asleep on Sirius. It would have been nice, sort of like her dream, but it also would have been a bit embarrassing. She wasn’t embarrassed of Sirius, but more the fact that she had fallen asleep on him. He was just so comfy and warm, and she couldn’t help herself in the end. Well, it all worked out in the end anyway.

Once Jasmine got her thoughts collected, she realized that it was Christmas morning. This realization caused her shoot out of her bed. She rushed down the stairs and completely forgot that she probably should have checked the time before she got out of the bed. Luckily, it didn’t matter because most everyone else was already up. They were all in the kitchen eating breakfast. Sirius was the first one to see her.

“Mare!” Sirius exclaimed when he looked over to see who had entered the kitchen. Then Sirius got up and left James in the middle of the story he was telling in order to properly greet his girlfriend. This happened to be with a peck on the lips and a hug.

“Good morning, Pads.” Jaz greeted her boyfriend. “Happy Christmas.” Then she gave him her own peck on the lips before escaping his embrace in favor of getting some food for herself. Sirius pouted a bit when she left him, but he knew that he couldn’t keep her in his arms all morning. She needed breakfast at some point obviously. Also, they wouldn’t open their presents until after everyone had had breakfast. And since Jaz was the last one to get up, they would have to wait until she finished her food so that they could open their gifts.

While Jasmine went and got some breakfast (it was homemade chocolate chip pancakes), Sirius retook his seat next to James, who was glaring at him. Sirius didn’t notice the stare, or more like he ignored the stare. “So, you were saying?” Sirius asked James encouraging to pick up his story from where he left off.

“No.” James was still pissed that Sirius left in the middle of the story. Don’t get him wrong, he is so happy for his best mate and Jaz (who was basically his sister), but that didn’t mean he was okay with Sirius getting up with no warning in the middle of a story that James was telling him. That was not okay. He could have at least excused himself to say good morning to his new girlfriend. But really did James really expect anything different from Sirius. That boy was already whipped, and they had only just started dating. Though James knew he was whipped before they even got together, or at least as “whipped” as he could be while still keeping secrets from Jasmine.

Plus, James knew that continuing his story was pointless. Once Jasmine came and sat next to Sirius, James would lose his best mate’s attention. It was a fruitless action to try and continue his story when he knew Sirius would stop paying attention once Jaz came and sat with them.

“No? What do you mean no, Prongs?” Sirius was a bit stunned that his best mate was still mad about his actions. He knew him better than anyone, so what he just did should not have really surprised James but yet it had. Or at least it had pissed him off. Sirius wasn’t about to apologize though, well until Jaz came and sat next to them. Sirius hadn’t originally noticed the girl because he was so focused on why the hell James was still so pissed at him.

It wasn’t until Jaz finally spoke up that Sirius finally noticed his girlfriend sitting next to him at the table. “Hey, Prongs, Pads. What are you guys talking about?” Jaz didn’t seem to notice the glare that James was sending Sirius right away. That was because she hadn’t actually looked at the boys when she sat down. She was focused more on her food than she was them at the moment. She was pretty hungry after all. Jasmine only looked up from her delicious chocolate chip pancakes when she didn’t get a response from either boy. She was at least expecting Sirius to greet her with a kiss and an acknowledgement from James but none of that happened, so she looked up at the two boys to see what they problem was. That is when Jaz saw the glare that James was still directing Sirius’ way, while Sirius was just staring back confused at his best mate’s anger.

Jasmine decided to intervene in their “argument.” She figured it was probably about something really stupid that she could easily fix if she got one of their stubborn asses to apologize to the other one. That was usually how she fixed their stupid arguments. She tried her best to be peace maker, but there was no way that she would be able to manage it without Remus helping her sometimes. He was like her backup peacemaker, especially when she wasn’t around. Anyway, Jasmine figured that it would be Sirius this time that she would have to get to apologize because it was clear that James was mad at him for something. Whatever that was, Jaz didn’t necessarily want to know. She didn’t really care anyway. They were usually really stupid arguments after all.

Jasmine leaned over to Sirius and whispered in his ear, “Hey, Siri, do you think that you could just apologize to James for me? You don’t want to ruin Christmas, do you?” Jasmine said this in the best seductive voice that she could muster in the moment.

This only managed to cause Sirius’ face to become bright red, evidently embarrassed. He was mainly embarrassed because of the new nickname that Jaz had decided to give him in the moment. In order to save himself from further embarrassment from his girlfriend, he leaned and whispered back, “I would happily do that Mare, but I can’t seem to figure out why Prongsy is so angry at me. Also, please for the love of God never call me Siri again.”

Jaz let out a little giggle after the last part. The first part though confused her, but it made sense why he had looked confused earlier when she saw James was glaring at him. Though, usually when they had arguments, they were both aware of the stupid topic they were arguing about.

“ _This is going to be more complicated than I originally thought_ ,” Jasmine thought. Then Jasmine turned her attention away from Sirius toward James to ask him why he was so angry with his best mate. But when she turned toward him, Jaz saw that James was glaring at both of them, which didn’t make sense since Jaz was sure that she hadn’t done anything recently to upset the boy. So, instead of asking him why he was made, Jaz turned her attention back to Sirius. She leaned in and whispered, “Don’t look now, but Prongsy is glaring at both of us now.”

Of course, Sirius immediately turned around and saw James glaring at them both. He also heard a groan come from his girlfriend. Then he turned back around to face Jaz. It was in that moment that he realized why James was probably angry, or actually more like jealous. Whispering to Jasmine, Sirius told her quietly, “I think James might be a bit jealous.” Jasmine pulled back from him, wide-eyed to say something back, but Sirius pulled her back. “See when you came into the kitchen and I came to greet you, I left James in the middle of a story. Now James is used to this by now. I have gotten distracted several times before when he would tell me a story, but he usually isn’t mad at me for this long. He just expects it from me now. It’s not like it’s something completely new to him. He usually just sighs and is just annoyed with me. Then when my attention is back on him, I will prompt him to continue the story and he will. When I did that after I let you go get food, he told me no. He has never done that before. Plus, now that he is glaring at both of us, mainly me, it makes sense that he would be jealous.”

When Jasmine was sure Sirius was done with his explanation, she pulled back a little and stared at her boyfriend. It hadn’t even occurred to her that James might be jealous of their relationship because he was definitely not jealous of Sirius being with her since they were practically brother and sister. That is when a plan begins to formulate in Jasmine’s brain, and Sirius notices right away. He whispers in her ear, “You have an idea. You better let me in on it. He is my best mate after all.” Then he pulled back so that he was looking into her eyes.

Jasmine nodded her head then whispered quiet enough that no one would overhear, but not so quiet that Sirius wouldn’t be able to hear her. “Yes, I do, but I’ll tell you about it later.” Sirius pouted. “Pads, I would like to open the rest of my presents first. Plus, this way I can tell you without a chance of James overhearing my plan. For now, just apologize to him so that we can move on and enjoy Christmas.”

Sirius nodded and turned away from his girlfriend. Now Sirius was facing his best mate. “James, I’m sorry for leaving you in the middle of your story.” Sirius gave him an apologetic smile.

James was surprised, and it showed. It didn’t last long though. “It’s all good, Sirius. I get it. She’s your girlfriend and you wanted to tell her good morning.” Although James did see sincere about that he forgave Sirius, he said the last part a bit bitterly, something that James himself didn’t seem to realize he had done.

With the argument somewhat behind the two boys, they engaged in a new conversation as Jasmine finished up her chocolate chip pancakes.

It wasn’t much later that all of them (the Potters, Sirius, Lily, and Jasmine) were all sitting around the same Christmas tree that they had last night. They were all sitting in relatively the same places that they were last night. Each of them, especially the “kids” had several presents in sitting in front of them. None of the teens were willing to wait for each person to open up their own gifts, so they just torn open their gifts without waiting.

By the time they were all done unwrapping all the presents, there was a collection of wrapping paper and other various trash that was sitting in the middle of the room. Soon it was gone because Mr. Potter had casted a spell and it all disappeared. Now in front of each person were several unwrapped presents that they had all just opened.

In front of Sirius were various treat and other such stuff from both Peter and Remus. There was nothing from his parents in the pile of presents in front of him, but surprisingly, Sirius get something from his brother, Regulus. I wasn’t really much, but Sirius absolutely loved it. It was a magical photo of them together when they were younger (and his parents didn’t absolutely hate him). It was a good memory and Sirius really love the present. It even came with a note that read:

_Brother,_

_I am sorry about what our parents have done to you over the years, but don’t worry about me. I’m fine. And now you can be fine too._

_Your brother,_

_Regulus_

It wasn’t really much, but it did put Sirius at ease a little bit. He wasn’t so worried about his brother being hit by his parents anymore, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t worry about the path his brother was willingly taking. He knew that path led to messing around with the dark arts and such if Snivellus was any indication. But for now, he wouldn’t worry so much about his brother.

Also among Sirius’ gifts was a beautiful new tool set that James had got him. It was an amazing gift that made Sirius question where he got it from. It wasn’t something you would find in the magical world, so James must have help, but Sirius wasn’t sure if Jasmine were the one who helped him. Anyway, it was just what Sirius needed to be able to finish fixing up the motorcycle that was still sitting in what could sort of be considered a garage but not really since it wasn’t one. The Potters didn’t need a garage especially since they didn’t need or want a car. There was no real reason that they would need a car since they could apparate. So, the motorcycle was actually sitting in a downstairs room in a deserted corner of Potter Manor. It was the best that the boys plus James’ parents could come up with when Sirius came home with the motorcycle. He planned to show the motorcycle to Jaz and Remus tomorrow, since that is when Remus would be coming over. He was only allowed to stay for a couple of hours, but Sirius thought it was better than nothing.

In front of Jasmine were the same sort of treats as in front of Sirius from the other boys that were not with them. Although, Jasmine had also gotten a copy of one of her favorite muggle books from Remus, which she really appreciated. Besides the gifts from Peter and Remus, Jasmine had gotten a seemingly empty notebook from James. When James noticed the confused look, she was giving him, he told her that the writing was just invisible and that she could only see it with the revealing charm. Therefore, she would have to wait until they got back to Hogwarts to see what was actually written in the notebook. Or Jaz could just ask her amazing of age boyfriend to do the spell for her, something that James seems to have forgotten about since he teased her when telling her she would have to wait and see. Unlucky for James, Jaz would just ask Sirius to do the charm for her when she talked to him later about her plan for James and his jealousy.

One other gift that Jasmine had in the pile in front of her was her gift from Lily. Last year’s Christmas gift that Jaz had gotten from Lily was really special, but this year’s gift was even better. It may have just been a simple friendship bracelet, but to Lily and Jasmine, it was so much more. It was actually a replica of the original friendship bracelet that Lily had made Jaz before she moved away. 

_Flashback (of sorts)_

_Originally, before either girl knew they were witches, they were still best friends and practically sisters. They used to live closer to one another as well. Anyway, one day they girls had been hanging out with each other when one of them, Jaz couldn’t remember who, brought up friendship bracelets. They both loved the idea of them, especially since this idea came soon after Jasmine found out she would be moving to France because her dad got a job there. So, they made each other friendship bracelets in order to remind them that they would always be best friends and sisters no matter what. They also made a promise to each other that they would tell each other everything no matter what it is, which meant no secrets._

_They knew it would be hard to keep the no secrets thing up since they were going to be living in different countries now, but they believed they would manage. And they did manage to do it through the many letters they wrote each other and each time they were able to see each other. It was all going great for them. They were making their friendship work even though they were countries apart. And through it all both girls never took off their friendship bracelets, even when they were mad at the other girl. It was just something that they just wouldn’t do. That is until tragedy struck when Jasmine lost her father. It was an accident really, but Jasmine had somehow managed to accidentally lose the friendship bracelet._

_Jasmine hadn’t noticed until a week after she got the news about her father’s death, but when she did, Jasmine flipped out. She had looked down at her wrist for comfort because just seeing the bracelet usually cheered Jasmine up. It reminded her she wasn’t really alone. Lily would always be there for her even when she couldn’t be there in person. That was when Jasmine noticed that the friendship bracelet was no longer on her wrist. She completely flipped out and started looking everywhere in Beauxbatons for the bracelet, but after looking everywhere in the castle, Jaz couldn’t find it. She knew she had to tell Lily, even if she knew the girl would be a bit mad about it. But they had promised not to keep secrets and Jaz was not about to start now._

_So, Jaz wrote a letter to Lily at Hogwarts explaining that she had lost the friendship bracelet. She got a response back almost immediately, or as immediately as it could be. Lily told her that she wasn’t mad at her cousin. Lily told Jaz that she completely understood, especially given the circumstances. Jaz was glad that Lily wasn’t mad about the loss of the friendship bracelet, but the girl still couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty about losing it in the first place._

_End of Flashback (of sorts)_

Ever since then, the girls still kept in contact and such, but Lily never found the opportunity to make another friendship bracelet for her cousin. She just didn’t have the time anymore. And sadly, Lily felt that they were actually drifting apart for some reason (that reason happened to be a secret in the form of Jasmine’s mother). Though, they didn’t really drift too far apart, especially after Lily had first seen Jasmine after Jaz’s father died. It still wasn’t the same though because one of them had a constant reminder of the promise they had made to each other while the other didn’t.

So, when Jasmine had opened her gift from Lily and saw the friendship bracelet, she couldn’t help the tears that started to form in her eyes. She looked up at her cousin and was able to catch her eye. Jaz gave Lily a watery thankful smile. She was so grateful for the gift. Jaz absolutely loved it, but with the bracelet came a reminder of the promise they had made to each other. And suddenly Jasmine started to feel guilty. Sure, she had kept the secret about her mother a secret from Lily at one point, but not Lily knew everything. No, Jasmine wasn’t feeling guilty about keeping that a secret. Instead, Jaz felt guilty about the secret that she was currently keeping from Lily. She was currently keeping a secret from Lily about herself and the Marauders. Though Jaz was glad it was just the one secret and not two. It had been two at one but now that Lily knew about Remus and his furry little problem. But technically the animagus secret wasn’t entirely her secret to tell, just like the werewolf secret involving Remus. Because if she told Lily that she was an animagus, Lily would pry and ask a bunch of questions. That would then lead back to the marauders somehow, which Jaz couldn’t let happen. She wasn’t about to betray their trust like that, which Jaz is sure Lily would understand but for now Jaz would just have to keep it a secret.

Anyway, Sirius and Jasmine had gotten some amazingly touching gifts from their “siblings,” but James and Lily also got some pretty touching gift. Lily’s gifts included a gift from Remus which was few treats (same as Jasmine and Sirius) as well as a magical book that Lily had told Remus she had always wanted to read one night on their rounds. She was touched that he had remembered, so Lily decided she would make sure to thank the boy tomorrow when he visited the Manor.

Also in front of Lily was a gift that Lily had been expecting to get. What she hadn’t expected was what they actual gift was. The gift was from James, who Lily knew would be getting her a gift, especially since he had gotten her those chocolates last year. It wasn’t really a surprise when she saw that he had gotten her a gift. Her surprise came once she opened the gift up. I wasn’t a very big gift, but Lily assumed it was just some more chocolates. Boy was she wrong. After removing the wrapping paper, Lily found a little box that she recognized came from a jewelry store, which shocked her, but not as much as what was in the actually in the box. Inside the box was probably one of the most beautiful necklaces that Lily had every seen. It was so gorgeous that Lily audibly gasped upon seeing it. The necklace wasn’t really much. It was a simple but elegant necklace with a single green gem on it, but it was exactly something that Lily would wear. She wasn’t one to go over the top, so this necklace was perfect for her.

Lily was about to put on the necklace, but when she picked up the necklace, something fell out of the box. It was a note from James say:

_Lily,_

_I hope you like the necklace. I saw it and it reminded me of your beautiful eyes. I knew I just had to get it for you._

_Love,_

_James_

Lily was pulled back down to earth by the note. It was at that moment that Lily remembered that the necklace had come from James. Now Lily was torn on whether she wants to wear it though because it is from James who she still doesn’t like, but it is still an amazingly thoughtful gift that she loves. She decides that for now she is going to put it back into the box and decide later. “ _Maybe Mina will be able to help me decide later._ ” Lily thought to herself. Then she happened to glance over to see her cousin was opening her gift. The happy tears in Jasmine’s eyes had reassured Lily that Jasmine remembered the meaning of the bracelet.

Meanwhile over in James’ pile of gifts was also a variety of treats from both Peter and Remus. There was also some quidditch stuff from his parents. There was also some prank stuff in there from Jasmine. There wasn’t anything entirely sentimental about most of James’ gifts. Well, all except for one gift that came from Lily. When James had seen that they girl had gotten him a gift as well, he was really touched by the gesture. He wasn’t really expecting anything from her, which he didn’t really mind. So, the fact that there was even a gift at all really meant a lot to the boy.

The even more touching thing was the what the gift actually was. It was a quidditch new banner that he was definitely bringing to Hogwarts to hang in his room. It wasn’t just any quidditch banner, though, it was a banner from his absolutely favorite quidditch team. James was sure that the only way Lily could have possibly known that was because she asked Jasmine. There was no other way that she would have known what his favorite quidditch team was otherwise. He had never mentioned it around her. So, unless she had been eavesdropping on one of his quidditch discussions with Sirius, which he highly doubted, Lily had to have gotten her information from Jaz.

James had to thank the girl for the wonderfully thoughtful gift that she got him, so he got up and walked over to where she was sitting. James took a seat next to the redhead before expressing his thanks. “Lily,” he started in order to get the girls attention. Once she was looking over at him, he continued. “Thank you for the gift. I love it. I needed a new poster anyway. The one in my room is falling apart.”

“It was really nothing Potter. I just wanted to get you something for letting us stay here for Christmas. Jasmine is actually the one who came up with the idea in the first place.” Lily turned away from the boy to hide the blush she was desperately trying to keep down. Lily couldn’t help it, but she was glad James liked her gift.

Technically the first part of what she said was true because that was her original reasoning for getting him a gift. Well, that and the fact that she knew that he would be getting her one as well. Though, that second part of what she said was Lily stretching the truth a little bit, well actually she was stretching it more than that. It was actually Lily’s own idea to get James something quidditch related since she knew he liked the sport, everyone at Hogwarts knew about his love of quidditch. Lily had made a list of different quidditch things that she could get the boy from Christmas. On her list was something from his favorite quidditch team. Lily had been trying to decide what she wanted to get him when Jasmine had come into the room.

_Flashback_

_“Hey Lils. What are you doing?” Jasmine asked as she entered their dorm._

_“Oh, just some last-minute revisions and such. Nothing really.”_

_“Great. Then you can listen to my story.” Jasmine said cheerfully. “You could probably use a break anyway.”_

_Lily could have argued that she didn’t, but really, she could use the distraction. Plus, maybe Jasmine’s story would inadvertently help her to decide what to get James._

_It turns out that Jasmine’s story actually did help Lily to decide. Jasmine told her about what had happened in the Marauders’ dorm earlier that day. They had been messing around and one of James’ favorite quidditch posters got all messed up. It was a poster with his favorite quidditch team on it. It had disappointed James to see that his poster was now ruined, but he had told them that it was getting old anyway. He was planning on replacing it anyway. And with that Lily knew exactly what to get James for Christmas. But before she could get him the poster, she would have to ask Jasmine what James’ favorite quidditch team._

_End of Flashback_

So, Lily had found out what James’ favorite quidditch team was without her cousin even knowing about the Christmas gift she was going to give him. And though, Lily kept telling herself that she got the gift to thank James for letting them come over to his place over the break, Lily knew she wasn’t completely being truthful with herself. She wasn’t about to admit it yet, but James Potter is not an entirely awful person when you start to get to know him. He isn’t always a toe rag, or at least as of lately he hasn’t been. That did not mean under any circumstance that Lily had a crush on him at all. There was no way that she would ever like him like that.

* * *

The rest of the morning seemed to pass by in a blur. After opening all of their presents, the teens went up to their respective rooms to get dressed for the day. They were all still in their pajamas of course. But once they were all dressed, James went to go hang out with his best mate only to find him already hanging out with Jasmine. James was disappointed but he could understand that the new couple needed their time together. Little did James know, but he was actually the topic of discussion for the couple this afternoon.

While James headed back to his room, the new couple continued their planning. They were planning on how to best get James and Lily together. Jaz was the one to come up with idea. She told Sirius about it when he came into her room to discuss what she came up with earlier.

“Sirius, my idea is to get James and Lily together finally!” Jasmine exclaimed.

Sirius wasn’t as excited over the prospect at first. Actually, he was more skeptical than excited as Jasmine was. “Mare, you do realize that even though we already know that James is absolutely in love with Lily, that doesn’t mean Lily feels the same way. Lily has made it clear that she does not like James at all, especially not romantically.”

Jaz gave her boyfriend a look that clearly said _Really, you think you know my cousin better than me_ before responding. “Oh, but you are mistaken my love. You clearly don’t know my cousin as well as I do. And I know that although she is still denying it, Lily is starting to warm up to James and the rest of you guys. She has probably also noticed the change in the two of you this past term. You guys have really grown up and matured to an extent. You haven’t been acting as childish anymore, and clearly Lily has taken noticed.”

Sirius started to interrupt, but Jasmine wouldn’t allow him to. “Nope, you can’t interrupt me yet, Sirius. You haven’t even heard the best part.” Sirius leaned in now intrigued at what the best part was and motioned for Jasmine to continue. “The best part is that she actually got him a really thoughtful Christmas gift. I found out that she was at least getting him a present when I saw her working at her desk one day during the semester. I knew she wasn’t working on anything for her classes because of her facial features. The concentration that she had was not the usual one she had on when she was studying. Anyway, I told her about how James’ quidditch poster got destroyed and she practically lit up like she had just come up with a great idea. So, when she then asked me what James’ favorite quidditch team was, I knew what she was thinking. I haven’t told her that I knew yet because she is still in denial, but I’m hoping the ball will help her realize that she actually likes James. So, what do you think Sirius? Do you think you can help me come up with a plan to make that happen?”

Sirius gave her the best devilish grin he could manage. “I think I can manage that. Let’s get to planning, my sweet.” And with that the couple began their scheme to get their respective best friends together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Okay, so originally this chapter was going to be about the days leading up to the Christmas ball and then go into some of the Christmas Ball itself. I was planning on splitting up the Christmas Ball chapter into 2 parts, but that didn’t end up happening. What actually happened is I began to write this chapter and as I got more ideas for it, it became longer and longer. So, I had to change my plans a bit in order to not make this chapter super long (I want to be at least semi consistent with my chapter lengths). Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this lovely chapter I wrote.
> 
> And I hope to see you all soon,
> 
> 😉 Knk6700 😉


	15. Happy Christmas Ball and Merry New Year (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A motorcycle and a ball. Plus a plan formulated by Sirius and Jasmine. Now what could go wrong when everything had never felt so right? Apparently everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes. Another new chapter. This is the first part of the chapter I was going to make the last chapter. This is what I was going to add for the last chapter but oh well. Plans have to change sometimes when you have lots of great ideas floating around. Anyway, I love you all my wonderful readers, so I really hope you all enjoy this chapter. 😊
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 15: Happy Christmas Ball and Merry New Year (Part 1)

It took almost all of the rest of Christmas for Sirius and Jaz to come up with their final plan to make James and Lily a thing, but it was so worth it. They were both really excited about it. Most of the details had been finalized on Christmas but not all of them. They were planning on asking Remus for a little extra help finalizing the detail. And since the werewolf was coming over to Potter Manor that day, the day after Christmas (December 26), the new couple thought they would just ask him when he came over. In the meantime, though, Sirius had a surprise that he wanted to show Jasmine.

That morning after Christmas day, Sirius woke up before Jasmine again, but that wasn’t a surprise because he was sure she continued to work on their plan after he left her room last night. She was really into the idea, especially since she knew it would not only make James happy (which was a bonus) but it would also make her best friend and cousin happy in the ends. Sirius knew that she knew what she was doing. He also knew that she would fill him in once she woke up.

So, that morning, instead of hanging out with his lovely girlfriend, Sirius thought he would spend it with James. He needed some bro time anyway. Sirius knows he has been neglecting his best mate since he and Jaz got together and decided to remedy that by hanging out with him all morning. Or at least he would hang out with him until Jaz was up and ready for the day. Sirius had a surprise to show her before Remus arrived. He also wanted to show Remus, but Sirius wanted Jasmine to be the first one of the two to see the surprise

The surprise was the other reason that Sirius wanted to hang out with his best mate that morning. Which is what he asked James about when he saw him in the kitchen after getting his breakfast. “Hey, Prongs. I was wondering if you wanted to help me out with something this morning?”

“Why don’t you ask your girlfriend?” James questioned irately. James was still a bit bitter about getting “ditched” for Jasmine on Christmas yesterday.

“She’s asleep still, but even if she were awake, I wouldn’t want her help. I want your help, James.”

This caught James’ attention. “Really? And it will be just us.”

“Well, yeah. At least until we finish.” James frowned at this. He knew it was too good to be true.

“Oh. So, you weren’t asking me to spend the day with you?”

Sirius could hear the sadness in his best mate’s voice, so he decided then that he would spend most of the day with James. After all, it couldn’t be the whole day since Sirius and Jaz still had to talk to Remus about their plan. And since that plan involved James, they couldn’t include him in the planning. “Well, I wouldn’t say the whole day, but rather most of the day.”

James’ face brightened at that. “Really? You mean it Pads?”

“Of course. What kind of person do you take me for?” Sirius joked.

James rolled his eyes and changed the subject. “So, what is it that we shall be doing this fine morning, my fine furry friend?”

Sirius let out a chuckle. “My motorcycle is my first priority. I haven’t showed it to Mare or Remus, so I want to get more of it ready to show them today. You did such a great job helping me over the summer. Plus, we had a lot of fun working on it. So, what do you say, Prongs? You up for it this morning?”

James put his hand on his chin and started stroking his imaginary beard to indicate to Sirius he was “thinking” about it. He didn’t “think” about it very long before answering. “You know me Padfoot. I’m up for anything.” And with that the two boys went to where the motorcycle was being stored and started working on it. Before they went, Sirius told James’ mother to tell him when Jasmine woke up and not to tell her where him and James were and what they were doing.

* * *

It was several hours later when Jasmine woke up, luckily in bed and not on the desk that was in the room. Still laying out on the desk were the plans that Jaz and Sirius had come up with last night. There was also some other parchment that had the beginnings of how they were going to execute the plan they decided to go with. Noticing all the plans still on the desk, Jaz quickly got out of bed and put the papers away. She wanted to avoid Lily or James seeing them. There was no way that her cousin would ever be okay with what she was planning. James might be okay with it, but Jaz still didn’t want him finding about the plan before they were able to execute it.

Then Jaz headed downstairs to the kitchen in her pajamas. She found the kitchen almost deserted sans Lily who was eating her breakfast while reading the book Remus had gotten her for Christmas. Jaz knew Lily was really happy that she had gotten the book but not as happy about getting the necklace from James. Though, Jaz also knew that Lily would never admit that she loved the necklace more than the book because as far as Jaz could tell, her cousin was still in denial about her feelings for James. Jasmine knew better though.

When Jasmine saw Lily in the kitchen, she knew this would be the perfect chance to get some time alone with Lily. Jasmine felt like she had neglected her cousin for far to long since she had gotten together with Sirius. Now, with no sign of either boy, was the perfect time for Jasmine and Lily not only to get some cousin bonding time, but also for Jaz to thank Lily for the new friendship bracelet.

Jasmine got some breakfast and sat next to her cousin. Lily immediately marked her place in her book and set it off to the side to read later. Then Lily greeted her cousin. “Good morning, Mina.”

“Mornin’ Lils.” Jaz gave her cousin a smile before continuing. “I meant to find you yesterday, but I got caught up in something.”

“Oh, I know.” Lily sent a wink her cousin’s way.

Jaz rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t like that Lily.” Lily gave her one of her _are you kidding me_ looks. “Okay so it wasn’t like that the whole time Lily. We did other stuff than snog the whole night, you know.”

“I figured. There is no way that you both spent all day snogging each other’s faces off.” Jasmine rolled her eyes before Lily changed the subject. “So, why did you want to find me anyway?”

“I wanted to tell you how much I really love and appreciate the replica friendship bracelet. It means so much to me Lily, and I was so devastated when I lost it the first time.”

“I know, Mina. And I am so glad that you like it. I was hoping you would.” Lily pulled back the sleeve of the shirt she was wearing to show the one Jaz had given her all those years ago. “After all, I figured it wasn’t fair that I still have mine and you don’t have yours anymore. I would have given you one last year, but I never found the time to do it. I had time this year, so I figured now was the best time to give it to you.”

Jasmine pulled her cousin into a hug. Then she mumbled into Lily’s shoulder, “It is one of the best gifts that I have ever gotten Lils. I love it.” Then Jaz added quieter, “And I’m sorry Lils.”

Unlucky for Jasmine, Lily managed to catch what her cousin said. So, she pulled back from the embrace. “What Mina? What are you sorry for?”

Shock covered Jasmine face, but it quickly wore off. Then it was replaced by a look of guilt, which Jaz tried to hide from her cousin, but it was too late, Lily had already seen the look. Though, Lily saw the look, she did not ask her cousin about it. Lily had already figured out that Jaz was hiding something from her, but Lily knew that Jasmine would eventually come to her with whatever she was hiding. Lily knew that her cousin just needed time, but Lily was a bit impatient. She had been hoping that the bracelet might push Jasmine into finally telling Lily the secret she was keeping, but Lily wasn’t sure anymore, especially since Jasmine didn’t offer a response to Lily inquiry about her apology.

See that she wasn’t going to be getting any kind of answer from Jasmine, Lily decided to change the subject. “Well, Mina, it seems we have the morning to spend together. We can use it to catch up. You can tell me all about how you and Black have been spending your time lately.” Lily ended with a wink at Jasmine whose face started to turn a shade of red.

“Sounds great Lils. I could use a girls’ day with just the two of us.” Then Jasmine remembered that Remus was coming over later that day. “Well, at least until Remus arrives later. We can spend the time until then together, just the two of us.” Jasmine gave her cousin a smile, which was returned. Then the two girls finished their breakfast and headed up to Lily’s room where they spent their day together.

Meanwhile the boys were still working on the motorcycle trying their best to finish fixing it up before Remus would arrive. Sirius wanted to have it done at least an hour to half an hour before Remus was supposed to arrive. He wanted to show Jaz the motorcycle first, but he would be okay if they at least finished it before Remus arrived. The good thing was that they were on schedule for just that. The two boys didn’t have a lot to get done when they started as they had fixed up most of the motorcycle over the summer. It was good that there wasn’t much left to do, especially since it was their goal to get it done that day.

Anyway, they worked the entire day, only taking a few breaks, one of which was for lunch. Luckily, they hadn’t seen the girls at all, so it would still be a surprise. Plus, they didn’t have to lie to the girls either, which was just an added bonus, especially for Sirius who really didn’t want to have to lie to Jasmine anymore about anything.

By the time James and Sirius finished the motorcycle and eaten dinner, Remus had finally arrived at Potter Manor. He arrived in the early evening and could only stay a couple of hours. When Remus arrived, it was James who greeted him at the door.

When James heard the knock at the door, he ran to it and swung the door open. Standing there on the other side was one of his best friends, Remus Lupin. “Well, look who we have here,” James said to Sirius who had been with him when James heard the knock at the door.

“Well, if it isn’t Remus Lupin,” Sirius added, playing along. Then he dropped the act and pulled Remus into the Manor. “You know, it took you long enough. We were starting to think you weren’t coming at all.” Then Sirius pulled Remus into a hug and whispered in his ear. “Moony, I have something to discuss with you later.” Remus gave a slight nod to Sirius after getting out of the hug to indicate to Sirius that he had heard him.

“Well, Moony, we have a surprise for you,” James told his friend. “I know Padfoot here can’t wait to show you.” James winked in Sirius’ direction to which Sirius sent a glare in James direction in response.

Just then Jasmine entered the entrance way where the three boys were still standing. “Ooh, a surprise. What is it?” Jasmine asked the boys.

All three snapped their heads to the direction that Jasmine’s voice came from. Sirius, seeing his girlfriend enter the room, walked over to her. He pulled her into a side hug and was about to kiss her on the cheek but thought better of it. He didn’t necessarily want Remus to find out about his and Jasmine’s new relationship in the entrance way of Potter Manor. Plus, Sirius wasn’t entirely sure whether Jaz wanted him to know right now. They hadn’t actually talked about whether they would tell Remus about their relationship or not since they were more focused on their plan for James and Lily the night before. So, Sirius decided to just act as if nothing had entirely changed between him and Jasmine for the moment. He wouldn’t try anything unless Jasmine initiated it. They wouldn’t exactly have time to discuss whether they wanted to tell Remus or not until after Remus left. Sirius didn’t expect James to leave them alone anytime soon.

Jasmine, on the other hand, was more focused on what surprise the two mischievous boys had in store for Remus. It was a surprise that she was not in on, which concerned her just a bit since it could very well be a prank on the poor boy. So, not wanting to be left out of the loop, Jasmine repeated her question, “What is the surprise?”

“Don’t worry Jazzy,” James reassured. “It’s nothing bad. I swear. In fact, it is a surprise for you too. Sirius and I have been working on it all day, so I hope you enjoy what our hard work has accomplished.” By now James was standing next to Jaz on her other side with Remus not far behind them. Then James turned to Sirius and told him, “Well, lead the way oh furry one.”

Sirius had released Jasmine from the hug several minutes ago but was still by her side, though, he moved to give James a smack to the back of his head. Then he started to lead the three of them to the room where the motorcycle was. On the way they ran into Lily, who reluctantly decided to join them in their journey. It was only because her curiosity got the better of her, or so she would tell them all.

It wasn’t much longer after Lily had joined them that they reached the room where the motorcycle was staying. The door to the room was closed in order to keep the surprise hidden. Plus, Sirius and James obviously wanted to make a big dramatic showing of the surprise. And with that they obviously had an amazingly dramatic speech prepared, or at least Sirius did, since it was mostly his surprise.

“Ladies and werewolf, we have brought you here to this remote room of Potter Manor to show you the most amazing thing ever. It was once nothing, but with some help from James, I was able to make it what it is today. What you are about to witness–“ But Sirius never got to finish his speech as Lily interrupted him before he could.

“Oh, just get on with it Black. We don’t have all night. Just open the damn door and show us what you two morons have been so busy working on all day.”

Sirius let out a huff. “Fine. We’ll do it your way, but only because I really want to show you want it is.” Then Sirius swung open the door and the group entered the room.

The looks on all but James and Sirius’ faces were absolutely priceless. The shock of seeing the motorcycle sitting there was not at all what they were expecting to have found in the room at all. And none of them were expecting to see a fully restored motorcycle either.

The first to recover from their show was Jasmine. “Oh my god! What the hell?” Well, actually she was still pretty shocked, but she wasn’t speechless anymore. It was a few more moments before she was actually able to gather her thoughts, and when she did, Jasmine turned to Sirius. “Why the hell do you have a motorcycle?”

“Ah, yes. Excellent question, Ms. Dupont,” Sirius started off. “Well, isn’t it obvious? I found it for the Muggle Studies extra credit project. When I realized you were probably not going to be helping me out anymore, Mare, I knew I would have to end up doing it by myself. That is when I happened to stumble upon this motorcycle that was about to by hauled away. Actually, it wasn’t really a motorcycle, but more the bare bones of a motorcycle, but that’s beside the point. I saw this beauty and I immediately wanted it. So, I spent the entire rest of the summer, with some help from James, fixing up this motorcycle. It took a lot of research and search to get all of the right parts, but I did it.” Then James punched him in the shoulder. “I mean we did it. I couldn’t have done this without James. So, what do you all think? I haven’t tested it out yet, but I probably won’t do that until the Summer.”

By this point, Lily and Remus had snapped out of their daze. They both congratulated the boys on their job well done. They did a great job fixing up the motorcycle. After offering her congratulations, Lily said goodbye to the boys and Jasmine before leaving the room. James was soon to follow after the girl. He made a lame excuse about having to do something before rushing out of the room. Now it was just Sirius, Jasmine, and Remus left in the room with the motorcycle. This is when Jasmine brought up her idea. “Sirius, this is amazing. I am so proud that you were able to get this done without asking any of us half-bloods for any help. That is very impressive. But I think I have an idea on how to make it even better.”

“I’m listening.”

“What if instead of it just being a regular motorcycle, it was as magical motorcycle.”

Sirius gave his girlfriend a confused look. “What do you mean magical motorcycle? How on earth could I make it magical?”

“By making it fly of course. How else would it be magical?” Jasmine gave her boyfriend a smug smirk.

Sirius, hearing the idea, just wanted to kiss that smirk off of Jasmine’s face, but refrained from doing so. Sirius still wasn’t sure if Jasmine wanted Remus to know about their relationship. But Sirius still pulled the girl into a bear hug. Then when her released her he said, “Mare, that is an absolutely brilliant idea. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. You’ll help me, right? You too, Moony?” Jasmine nodded her head. Then the two turned toward Remus for his answer.

Remus jumped at the sound of his nickname. He had been paying attention at first to the conversation, but ended up getting lost in his thoughts, but he still said, “Of course, Padfoot.” Though, since he was lost in his thoughts, Remus wasn’t entirely sure what he was agreeing to.

“Brilliant. We can get started on that when we get back to Hogwarts. In the meantime, Moony, Mare and I have something we want to discuss with you.”

Then the couple took turns telling Remus about their ideas of how to get James and Lily together as a couple or at least get them to start being friends. Remus listened intently and even interjected a few times to offer other ideas of how to better the plan. They spent the rest of the time that Remus was at Potter Manor working on a plan for getting James and Lily together. They had pretty much finalized the entire plan by the time that Remus had to leave. There were only a few kinks that Jasmine and Sirius knew they could work out by themselves. They were very grateful for Remus’ help and promised to tell him how the plan ended up going.

While they were formulating their plan, James had caught up to Lily. “Hey, Evans. Wait up. I have something I want to ask you.”

Lily, not wanting James to keep chasing after her, slowed down and allowed the boy to catch up to her. She didn’t stop though. Once he caught up, she asked, “What do you want, Potter?”

“Jeez, cold much, Lily-pad?” Lily rolled her eyes at his comment, which for some reason actually hurt her a bit, but she knew he was just joking around. “I just wanted to ask whether I could be your escort to the Christmas Ball tomorrow?”

Lily was about to respond no, but then she thought more about it. Originally, Lily had planned to spend the entire ball with her cousin but now things had changed. Jasmine was bound to want to go to the ball with her boyfriend. Lily also assumed that there was probably no way that she would get her cousin away from Sirius Black anyway. To herself Lily thought, “ _I really would have rather spend this ball with Mina but seeing as she has been a bit preoccupied with Black, I mean Sirius, lately, I don’t see us hanging out at this ball. Plus, I want to give them the time to be together. They are so right for each other. Sirius understands her in a way that I never really could. And then there is the fact that they help each other heal after each of their personal abuse. It may be slow, but I can tell that they are actually so much better for each other now that everything is out in the open. I am really happy for Mina, too. She deserves some happiness after everything that she has gone through since she was 11. I guess the only way I might actually survive this ball at all is if I go with Potter. I really don’t have much of a choice. And I don’t think it will be that bad anyway. Potter isn’t as bad as he has been in the past. Plus, he got me that absolutely gorgeous necklace for Christmas._ ” Then Lily’s thoughts stopped abruptly because James was trying to get the girl’s attention.

“Lily-pad? You still in there? Are you going to answer my question or not?

“ _So much for him changing_ ,” Lily thought. Then out loud she answered, “Sure, Potter. Why not? We can occupy each other while our best friends are sucking each other’s faces off.” Lily joked. Then her voice turned serious, almost threatening. “But don’t you go getting any ideas, Potter. I am not agreeing to a date. I’m doing this for Mina. She deserves a fairytale ending at least once in her life.”

James, a bit scared of Lily, vigorously nodded his head, agreeing to Lily’s terms. “Wasn’t planning on it, Evans.” James teased. And with that, the plan that Sirius, Jasmine, and Remus were currently coming up with was already getting set into motion before they had even finalized it.

* * *

Soon enough it was December 28, the morning of the annual Potter Christmas Ball. And Potter Manor was in chaos. But not because there were any last-minute decoration changes or anything like that but rather because of the girls getting ready. Lily had insisted on doing Jasmine’s hair and make up before the ball. She also refused to let either of the boys into her room to see Jasmine or herself before they were ready for the ball.

Before any of them knew it, it was almost time for the ball. The boys were standing at the bottom of the staircase that led to the bedrooms. They were waiting for their “dates” to come out, so they could escort them to the ballroom. When the girls finally came down the stairs, both boys’ jaw dropped open. They couldn’t stop staring at the two girls. They looked absolutely gorgeous. The girls had had gone all out on the make up and hair. They had put blush, lipstick, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, and a bit of concealer on each other.

For Jasmine, Lily had put on lipstick that was a darker red almost maroon-ish color. Her blush wasn’t nearly as dark but was still prominent on her cheeks. Lily hadn’t put much on, but it was still visible on Jasmine cheeks. For her eyes, Lily hadn’t put much mascara, rather just enough. The real draw was actually the eye shadow that Lily done for Jasmine. With a little help from Mrs. Potter, Lily was able to make it so that there was a blue sparkly circular middle surrounded by a light black color. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Then there was what Lily had done to Jasmine’s already beautiful dark strawberry blonde hair. Lily also had help from Mrs. Potter to do Jasmine’s hair as well. The woman knew some beauty spells that made the process a lot easier than it would have been otherwise. Now Jasmine’ hair was already wavy, so curling was too simple of something to do. And Lily thought that straightening the hair was way too simple as well. Instead, she decided to straighten it after adding a small, braided crown around the top of Jasmine’s head. And she looked absolutely stunning with the hair style.

Jasmine’s dress corelated well with her makeup, particularly the eyeshadow. Her dress was strapless. It was a sparkling silver white color from the breasts down to her waist. From the waist down was a flowing deep blue color that was heavily littered with sparkles toward the top, but as you continued down the sparkles were farther apart. The dress looked absolutely gorgeous on the strawberry blonde. It really brought out the blue in her eyes, as did the eyeshadow. Sirius couldn’t stop staring at her.

Lily, on the other hand, went with a different color theme for her look. For her make up, Jasmine used the same shade of lipstick as Lily had used on Jasmine. She also used the same blush color. Basically, Lily’s make up was very similar to Jasmine’s makeup. The difference was the eyeshadow. Instead of the gorgeous design that was done for Jasmine’s eyeshadow, Lily had on shimmering emerald eyeshadow that looked amazing on her. They complimented her eyes in a way that just worked.

Lily’s hair was also done differently than Jasmine’s hair. Given the fact that Lily has straight red hair, Jasmine decided that she would curl Lily’s hair. But she decided to add her own flair in their as well. After curling Lily’s hair, Jasmine put Lily’s hair in a half up half down hairstyle with an emerald-colored bow. The bow really tied the whole hairstyle together.

Then there was Lily’s dress, which was remarkable similar to Jasmine’s dress. Unlike Jasmine’s dress, Lily’s dress was not completely strapless. Instead, Lily’s dress had sleeves that hung off of her shoulders and on her arms. Though Lily’s dress was also a sparkly silver at the of the dress down to her waist. The sparkles then continued down the emerald skirt of the dress, but unlike Jasmine’s dress, the sparkles in Lily’s dress did not continue all the way down the dress. They stopped about halfway down the dress.

Unlike Jasmine, Lily was also wearing some jewelry to compliment her dress. She had on the necklace that James had given her for Christmas, which complimented the dress very nicely. Lily also had on some small dangling emerald-colored earrings that matched the necklace almost perfectly. She looked absolutely perfect to James, who fell even more in love with Lily after seeing her come down those steps. He just couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

When the girls finally reached the bottom of the staircase, the boys were still staring at them, but Sirius less so than James. It took a slap upside the head from each of the boys’ “dates” for the evening to snap them out of it.

“Come on boys or we will be late for the ball.” Jasmine said as she interlocked her arm with Sirius’ arm before letting him lead her toward the ball room. Lily reluctantly did the same with James before following the couple.

Jasmine and Sirius stayed far enough ahead of Lily and James that they were out of hearing range. James was grateful for this as he wanted to talk to Lily without them overhearing. “Lily,” James whispered to get the girl’s attention. She turned her head to look at him. “You look beautiful tonight.”

“Thank you, Potter. And you clean up nice.”

James gave her a grateful smile for the compliment, but inside James was a bit hurt that she had called him Potter and not James. He brushed the hurt aside for now. “I see you are wearing the necklace I gave you. It looks amazing on you. It really compliments your eyes.”

Lily turned away from James in order to hide the blush that was growing on her face. It didn’t mean anything except that Lily appreciated the compliment. She was just embarrassed that James had paid such close attention that he noticed she was wearing the necklace that he gave her. The blush did not mean that Lily had any feelings for James Potter, or so Lily kept telling herself. There was no way that she would ever have any kind of feelings for James Potter.

Before either of them could speak up again to break the awkward silence that was settling between them, the two couples had arrived at the ballroom doors. By the time they had arrived, there were several other regular guests who had already arrived. James recognized most of them because he had seen them at the ball previously, but other than that he really didn’t have any idea who anyone was. James knew faces, but he wasn’t the best with names most of the time. Unless he saw them on a regular basis, James would usually forget names. Though, James did know that the people who had already arrived were just people of high society, like his parents.

The ball wasn’t very exciting, or at least that is what James thought every time he was forced to come. He usually hated wearing his dress robes, but this year was different. This year instead of going with just Sirius, James had a “date.” Well, technically he told Lily that he knew this wasn’t a date, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t pretend for the night that they were on a date. This was everything James had every wanted ever since he had met Lily on the train that first day. He fell in love with her over the years and with each passing day fell deeper and deeper in love with her. And James thought it was absolutely hopeless for them to ever end up together, even though on the outside he seemed determined that he would end up with Lily. Though, when Jasmine came into the picture, James started to hope that he could actually have a chance with Lily someday. His hope was even strong as of recent days, especially after the gift that Lily gave him.

Anyway, James thought that now that he had a “date,” the ball would be more enjoyable. He was wrong, though, at least for the first part of the ball, which was dinner. James wasn’t really expecting much in the entertainment department during dinner, though. He could do without the looks that Sirius and Jasmine, or Sazzy as James had named them in his head, were giving each other. They looked so happy together and that just left James without his best friend. And if he was being truthful with himself, James felt lonely and jealous too. His best friend had gotten the girl that he wanted, but what about him. It felt like Sirius almost forgot about James, but James knew he never did. Plus, if Sirius could get the girl he wanted, why couldn’t James just end up with Lily. It was this very logic that landed him in the situation he was now.

James thought that since Sirius could get his girl then so could he. James could end up with Lily, he just had to try harder. So, after dinner when Sirius asked Jasmine to dance, James thought that was an excellent idea. Therefore, James asked Lily. “Hey, Lily-pad, you want to dance with me?” James asked, offering his hand out for her to take it.

“Sure. Sounds like fun.” Lily wasn’t about to spend the whole ball sitting at a table with James. She wanted to do something even if it meant she would have to dance with James Potter.

James wasn’t expecting her to actually agree to dance with him, but he figured he would take the change anyway. So, when she actually said yes, he was stunned. He was even more stunned when she took his hand, but he didn’t hesitate to lead her onto the dance floor. Luckily, James knew how to dance. Unluckily, Lily did not, so James being the nice guy that he is, whispered in her ear, “Just follow my lead and you will be fine. Don’t worry Lily. I got you.” Lily gave him a thankful smile in return.

Their dance wasn’t a very complicated one as James wasn’t about to try something like that with Lily. He didn’t want his toes stepped on, so he led her in a waltz-sway kind of dance. He didn’t want to try anything to complicated either so that Lily wouldn’t have a hard time following his steps as they danced together.

It was on this dance floor that everything went wrong. James and Lily had been dancing for about half an hour. Lily was getting the hang of it, so James felt confident enough to start a conversation. “Hey, Lily,”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you agree to dance with me?”

“Well, you are my escort for the evening, Potter. Plus, I wasn’t about to be stuck sitting at that table all evening. I wanted to do something more that sit there with you, Potter. And since you are the only one besides Black, I mean Sirius, that I know here, you were my only option to dance with.”

Lily’s words hurt James more than they normally would. James who usually brushed off Lily’s harsh words was actually hurt by them this time. He was particularly hurt by the fact that she still refused to say his first name. He called her by her first name, and she even corrected herself to saying Sirius’ first name. That begs the question of why she couldn’t say his first name. Not once did he ever hear her call him James. And that actually never bothered James before until now. If he were to have any shot at ever winning over Lily, he had to find out why she still refused to call him by his first name.

“Lily, why don’t you call me James?”

Lily was startled by the question. “What?”

“Why don’t you–“

“No, I heard you the first time.” Lily rephrased her question. “I meant, that I don’t get why you are asking that question. You should know by now why I don’t call you by your first name Potter.”

James started to get a bit angry now. “What do you mean I should already know? I get why you have called me Potter in the past, Lily, but why are you still doing it. You have at least at one point called each of the Marauders by their first name, all except me. So why are you still calling me Potter? It’s not like I’m still constantly calling you Evans. And even when I do call you Evans, I’m only teasing.”

Lily was angry now too. He had no right to accuse her of such things. “You know exactly why I still call you Potter. You are still the arrogant toe rag I met on the train that first day. You will never change Potter.”

James was really pissed off now and was practically yelling at Lily now. “Well then if I will never change why did you even bother coming with me tonight. You didn’t even have to come, Lily. You could have stayed at Hogwarts or even gone home or just stayed in your room for the night. You didn’t have to come tonight Lily. You didn’t have to mislead me all school year long. I thought we were starting to become actual friends Lily, but I guess not.”

Lily was really pissed off now and screamed right back at James. By now they were creating a scene in the middle of the dance floor. “How could you ever think that we were ever friends, Potter? And how dare you tell me what I could have done tonight. I wanted to come to this ball to have a good time. For once I wanted to feel like a princess, but you just had to ruin it Potter. I’m done with you. Goodnight, Potter.” And with that, Lily stormed out of the ballroom, leaving James in the middle of the dance floor. He stared after her confused and hurt wondering how they even got to this point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, trouble in paradise for Jily. I know this chapter was mainly focused on Jily (particularly at the ball), but don’t worry, there will be more Sazzy as well as Jily coming up in the next chapter.  
> Also, I know that this a long chapter, so I hope you all really enjoy it. And I look forward to reading all of your comments 😊
> 
> P.S. To everyone who has reviewed this fic: I appreciate your reviews and comments so much. They make my day (for the most part) and it makes writing this fic so much better so please keep it up. I hope to write a lot more in the coming weeks since I am on break now, but we will just have to wait and see what happens.
> 
> P.S.S. Did any of you catch the reference that I made in this chapter? Let me know if you did (Hint: Its not from a book or even Harry Potter. Think Television show) I’ll let you know if anyone got it right in the second part of this chapter.
> 
> Hope to “see” you all soon (Sorry for the long author’s note),  
> 😊 Knk6700 😊


	16. Happy Christmas Ball and Merry New Year (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily left James in the middle of the ball, is there any hope for Jily? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Here is part two of the last chapter, and possibly the last chapter I post for a while, so I hope you all enjoy it. Also, Happy New Year all of my lovely readers. I thought this chapter would be a wonderful way to bring in the new year. Let’s hope 2021 is better than 2020 was. (Fingers crossed)
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 16: Happy Christmas Ball and Merry New Year (Part 2)

_An hour before the ball:_

It was an hour before the ball was set to begin. The girls were getting ready, but Jasmine really wanted to talk with Sirius. She wanted to go over the plan one more time before the ball. It had to be full proof or as fool proof as they could make it. Luckily, Jaz was able so sneak away from Lily when her cousin went to get the dresses out of the closet. They had already done their hair and makeup, so Jaz knew this was probably the only time she would get to sneak off and find Sirius.

Thankfully, it wasn’t very hard to find the boy. He was in his room also getting ready for the ball, but he wasn’t taking nearly as much time as the girls were.

Sirius heard Jasmine enter the room. He figured she would be stopping by to go over the plan again. What he didn’t expect when he finally turned around was to see that his girlfriend had been transformed. So, when Sirius saw Jasmine, he was staring. He couldn’t believe the transformation that had been made to her in such a short time, but in reality, it actually wasn’t that short of a time. It was actually done in about 4-5 hours Jasmine wasn’t actually sure.

Sirius didn’t stare at Jaz for much longer though, as she hit him upside the head. “Hey, Pads. Stop staring. I don’t have much time before she finds me again.”

Sirius started at her confused. “Before who finds …” Trailing off, Sirius realized Jaz was talking about Lily. “Oh. Um, well, what is it you wanted to talk about Mare?” He asked trying to come off as coy.

“I just wanted to go over the plan one more time.”

“I figured that was why you were here but are you sure that is the only reason you came to find me.” Sirius gave her a suggestive wink.

She responded by smacking him upside the head again. “Yes, that is the only reason. I’ll have you know that if we start snogging, Lily is bound to find out that I snuck off to see you, and we don’t need her being suspicious about our plan.”

“Okay fine Mare. Have it your way, but I’ll get you later.” Sirius gave his girlfriend another wink before getting back to the real reason Jasmine was in his room. “So, what do you want to go over for the plan?”

“I just want to make sure that we are sure about what our jobs are.”

“Jobs?” Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Wow, Mare, I didn’t realize I was your job now.”

Jasmine whacked him again, but this time she went for his arm. “You know what I meant. I just wanted to make sure that we are both on track for getting James and Lily together tonight. Or at the very least getting Lily to realize her feelings for James. I would like to see that they are at least friends by the end of the night at the very least.”

“Of course. But if I know James, and I do, he is going to make that very hard.”

Jasmine nodded her head in agreement. “So, let’s go over the plan once more.”

“Fine.” Sirius sighed. “But the plan is basically just me and you trying to get James and Lily alone the entire night. Although, I’m still not sure how we are going to get Lily to accept a dance from James. That part is going to be tricky.”

“No, it won’t. Remember, I know my cousin very well. And as much as she hates to admit it, she will not want to be stuck doing nothing all night at a table alone with one James Potter. She will dance with him if we get up and don’t come back.”

“Okay. Fine, but what about…” Sirius never got to finish because at that very moment Jasmine covered his mouth with her hand. It was just in time too because Lily walked in only moments afterward.

“There you are. I should have known you were with Black. I can’t believe I didn’t check here first,” Lily commented more to herself than anything else. Then Lily grabbed her cousin’s arm and dragged her back off of finish getting ready. As Jasmine was getting dragged away, she blew a kiss to Sirius.

* * *

_Present time:_

James had just watched the love of his life leave him standing in the middle of the dance floor at the Annual Potter Christmas ball. He just couldn’t believe what had just happened. How on Earth did he get to this point? It just didn’t make sense to him. Sure, he had been teasing Lily a little bit, but his question was a sincere one. He really wanted to know why Lily refuse to call him by his first name. It really infuriated him that she called him Potter still while she was starting to call the rest of the marauders by their first names.

And that confuse and anger led them into an argument that James really didn’t want to have. He just wanted to have a great time with Lily for just once. That was all ruined by him and his stupidness. When James realized that it was his fault, he knew he had to find Lily and apologize. So, only minutes after Lily stormed out of the ballroom, James made his way out of the ballroom the same way that Lily did.

Meanwhile, Jasmine and Sirius had been sitting at the table the four had been seated at together. They had taken a break from dancing to check on the progress of their plan. When they saw James and Lily dancing awfully close on the dancefloor, they smirked at each other.

Jasmine, taking her seat at the table, said to Sirius, “Looks like our plan is working. They look awfully close.”

Sirius responded with a smirk. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up kissing by the end of the night.”

Moments after uttering those words, the couple heard arguments coming from the dance floor. They turned and looked to see James and Lily arguing with each other. “Looks like we spoke too soon, Mare.”

Jasmine’s only response was to smack her forehead. That was until she saw Lily storm out of the ballroom. She made eye contact with Lily, who gestured that Jasmine should follow her out. So, Jasmine proceeded to get up and follow her cousin out of the ball. But Sirius grabbed her arm before she could. Jasmine turned toward him for an explanation.

“Mare, don’t. This could still work. Let James fix his own mistake. They probably won’t end up as a couple tonight, but at the very least they could still end up as friends.”

“No, Sirius. You don’t understand. Lily needs me.” Jasmine tried to escape Sirius’ grip, but before she could, both her and Sirius watched as James exited the ballroom the same way that Lily had. Jasmine’s eyes went wide. She couldn’t believe the bravery and stupidity that James just showed. Lily was not someone that you wanted to mess with when she was angry. Therefore, Jasmine knew she had to stop him. “Sirius come on. We have to go. I would really hate it if Lily killed James.”

“Jaz calm down. We need to let them sort out their own problems. I know you don’t think they can work it out, but I believe they can”

“No, Pads, you don’t understand.” Jasmine threw her hands up in exasperation.

“Then explain it to me.”

“I know Lily better than you. Just trust me, Lily definitely doesn’t want to talk with James right now, especially since he is the one that she is angry with.” The sincerity in Jasmine’s eyes convinced Sirius that Jasmine knew what she was talking about. So, the couple left to follow James out of the ballroom.

What Jasmine wasn’t telling Sirius was that she would let James resolve this himself in the end. She knew Sirius was right that they would have to work this out themselves. But Jaz also knew Lily, and when Lily is mad at you, the solution is not to talk to her. Lily would usually calm down fairly soon after, but she still wouldn’t want to talk with you. Lily comes to you when she is ready to talk not any soon. She wants it to be on her own terms, not someone else’s terms. And Jasmine had learned that the hard way several times when they were younger.

Though, as Jasmine and Sirius made their way out of the ballroom, Jasmine thought better of it. What good would having her step into their argument do for their future relationship. If James and Lily were to have any kind of future relationship, Jasmine knew that James would just have to learn the hard way about not messing with Lily when she was angry. So, just as her and Sirius were about to exit the ballroom, Jasmine grabbed her boyfriend’s arm to stop him. Sirius looked back at her with a questioning look. She answered, “We can’t.” And with those simple words, the couple headed back into the ballroom and back to their table.

On the way back to their table, Sirius tried to lighten the mood. “Well, it looks like our plan went off smashingly.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Oh, definitely. This is exactly how the night was meant to turn out,” Jasmine replied with about as much sarcasm as Sirius had. “Guess our plan wasn’t as well thought out as we thought it was. It went off the rails a bit.”

Sirius chuckled and nodded. “More than a bit, I would say. I think we might have actually made it worse.”

It’s Jasmine’s turn to laugh now. “No, I’m pretty sure we just that Lily is just being her usual stubborn self. But let’s not focus on that now. If I continue to talk about Lily, I’m going to continue to feel even more guilty about not being the one to follow after her.”

“No need to worry, my love. Padfoot is here to distract you.” That is how the rest of the night went for the couple. Sirius distracted Jasmine from what could be happening between their respective best friends by dancing and joking with her the entire rest of the night.

Meanwhile, James was searching for Lily. He assumed that after she fled from the ballroom, she would have gone to her room, but she wasn’t there. All James found in the room was a mess of makeup and hair stuff that he assumed was from when the girls were getting ready.

After finding her room empty, James realizes that if he wants to apologize, he is going to have to search the rest of the Manor trying to find Lily. He looks for her in the kitchen first because he thinks that maybe she wanted to get some comfort food or something. But Lily isn’t in the kitchen. Then James looks in the main sitting/living room where they all opened up their Christmas presents a few days ago. Sadly, Lily isn’t there either. James continues to check the rest of the Manor, even the room where Sirius motorcycle is, but he can’t find her anywhere.

James is about to give up and just go to his room to wallow when he hears crying. He was right outside of his bedroom door when he hears the crying, but it isn’t coming from Lily’s room. In fact, James is pretty sure that it is coming from Jasmine’s room instead. So, instead of giving up like he had planned, James heads to where Jasmine’s room is. He isn’t sure if it is really Jasmine in their crying, but he isn’t about to let the girl who is like a sister to him be alone when she is crying.

James reaches Jasmine’s door, only to find it locked from the inside. Not giving up, James calls out, “Jazzy? Is that you in there? Is everything okay?”

James finds out fast that it is not Jasmine but rather Lily when the crying stops and is replaced by an angry voice. “What do you want, Potter?”

Hearing Lily’s voice, James is filled with hope that he could still fix this. “Lily! I’m so glad I found you. I’ve been looking all over the place for you.”

Lily just repeats her question in the same angry tone. “What do you want, Potter?”

James is hurt a little by her harsh tone, but he doesn’t let that keep his spirits down. “I just want to apologize Lily, but I’d rather do it face to face so will you please open the door?”

“No!” Lily yelled. “Now go away, Potter.”

James continued to try and persuade Lily to open the door or at least crack open the door so that he could see her face, but his efforts were fruitless. No matter how hard James pleaded with Lily, she refused to come out of the room. And soon James realized he was going about this the wrong way and he had to change tactics. So, James tried to get her so riled up that she would open the door just to tell him off. That, sadly, did not work either. James tried several other tactics, but it seemed nothing would get Lily to open the door, so James gave up trying to get her out. Instead, he planted himself in front of the door to wait. He knew she would have to come out eventually, after all it wasn’t her room. And when Jasmine came back, he would enlist her help to open the door so that he could apologize to Lily. Although James was still a little confused about why Lily was so angry with him. It wasn’t as if he had pranked her or anything. But he knew it was probably his fault, and if he really wanted to be friends with Lily, he would have to be the one to apologize.

While James was trying to get Lily out of the room, Lily wasn’t even listening to his attempts. After his first attempt, Lily had stopped listening. She couldn’t bear to listen to him any longer, lest she let her emotions get the better of her.

In reality, Lily wasn’t all that angry at James anymore. At first, she had been angry at James, but now she had had time to cool off and realize she wasn’t really angry at him but rather herself. It was just that his stupid questions had her questioning herself and she couldn’t understand it. If he had asked her last year why she was still calling him Potter instead of James, she would have told him it was because he was an arrogant toe rag that didn’t deserve her calling him by his first name. But now she wasn’t so sure. Now Lily didn’t exactly know why she was still calling him Potter when she started referring to the rest of the Marauders by their first names.

Although Lily had noticed that James wasn’t bullying as much anymore, that didn’t mean that she suddenly had a change of heart about him. Just because Lily happened to notice that he was actually starting to grow up was not a significant reason for her to start calling him by his first name. Then there was that Hogsmeade trip where she had spent time with him. It was then that she started to see this whole other side to him that she didn’t even think existed. It was also on that trip that Lily realized that James wasn’t that bad, but until he stopped his bullying completely, she wasn’t about to be his friend.

So, what made him think that they were friends? And why would she call him James if she weren’t his friend in the first place. But deep-down Lily knew the answers to these questions, she just didn’t want to admit it to herself. She knew that they had been getting closer to each other since the beginning of the school year, especially after the Hogsmeade trip. Then there was the gift that they had gotten each other, which Lily reflexively touched as the necklace was still around her neck. They had gotten closer, much closer than Lily ever expected to be with James Potter, closer than Lily wanted to admit to herself.

Lily wasn’t going to suddenly be like some of the other girls around Hogwarts that were always falling all over James. There was no way in hell she was ever going to be one of those girls. If James wanted to date her, he would have to earn it just like anyone else. And at these thoughts, Lily came to a startling conclusion that completely horrified her. “ _Do I actually want to date James Potter?_ ” Lily internally asked herself. But she had already known the answer because it was the answer to this question that had gotten Lily so upset at James in the first place.

Lily knew deep-down that she had started to fancy James after the Hogsmeade trip, but this was the first time that she actually admitted it to herself. For so long, Lily refused to think of James as anything more than a bully because he was. Though, after seeing the real him and how much he had change this school year, Lily realized he was much more than the egotistical bully he presented himself to be. James was also sweet, loyal, kind, and brave. He cared deeply for his friends and would protect them with his life. He was thoughtful enough to get her the necklace that was currently around her own neck. A necklace that Lily was sure was not cheap like her present had been. And yet, Lily was still mad at him, or more accurately her feelings for him.

By the time Lily had finally sorted out all of her feelings, she realized that James was no longer trying to get her to come out or open the door. Lily was relieved that he had given up because now she could make her way to her own room. She knew that she couldn’t stay and wait in Jasmine’s room all night, so this would be the best time to head over to her room. Lily would just have to talk with her cousin about the realizations that she had come to in the morning.

So, Lily goes to leave her cousin’s room and head back to her own, but when she opens the door and steps out of the room, she finds James sitting down next to the door. He is leaning up against the wall with his eyes closed. Lily really didn’t want to talk to him right now, so she goes to close the door before James notices but is too late. He had heard the door creak and had sprung up just in time to catch the door with his hand before Lily shut it close. Thankfully, Lily is kind enough not to crush it with the door and instead reopens the door. Lily realizes it is useless to try and avoid this conversation now, so she might as well get it out of the way now. Though, they can’t have it in Jasmine’s room. “James,” Lily accidently slips out for the first time. “Let’s talk in my room. I wouldn’t want Mina interrupting.”

James is too stunned to answer, so Lily just grabs him by the sleeve of his dress robes and pulls him toward her room. By the time they enter the room, the shock has worn off, but James still doesn’t say anything. He just walks over and sits on Lily’s bed. Then he motions for Lily to join him, but she doesn’t she isn’t about to let him tell her what to do, especially since she is supposed to still be mad at him. So, she just stands there in the middle of the room with her arms folded across her chest glaring at him.

It is several minutes later before anyone says anything, but finally James can’t take it anymore and he breaks. “Look, Lily, I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry about Potter?” The edge in Lily’s voice is evident. It warns James that if he says the wrong thing, he will just make it even worse.

Thinking carefully, James says, “I’m sorry about the questions. I didn’t mean anything by them. I just wanted to know why.”

Lily’s gaze softened. “I know, Potter, I mean James.” James’ face lit up when he heard his name come off of Lily’s lip for the second time that day. But Lily wasn’t ready to forgive him just yet. “Well, why did you want to know why? What is your reasoning for bringing up the subject in the first place?”

James stared at Lily like she was crazy. He couldn’t believe she had just asked him that. He was sure that his intentions for asking that question had been clear. “Seriously? You don’t know?” Lily gave him a look that clearly said that she was being very serious. “Well because I want to be your friend Lily and friends don’t call each other by their last names. I thought after the Hogsmeade…”

James didn’t get a chance to finish as Lily interrupted him. “Well, you were wrong.” The hostility in Lily’s voice growing again. But she took a deep breath before continuing. “But, if you still want to be my friend, James, I’m willing to start now.”

“Really?” James was not expecting this to be the way that this conversation would go.

“Sure. I’m willing to start being your friend James but nothing more. You are still a bully even if you aren’t as much of one anymore.” James’ only response was a big grin that he aimed Lily’s way. “Now get out. I’m tired, so I’m going to bed.”

Lily pulled the boy off of her bed and started to push him out the door. “Fine, fine. I’m going.” They reached the doorway, but before James left the room he teased, “Goodnight, Evans.”

“Goodnight, Potter,” Lily said back, but this time there was a teasing and annoyed tone to her voice.

* * *

Lily didn’t get the chance to speak with Jasmine for several days. Jaz was too caught up with Sirius, or so Lily though. The actuality of it was that they were actually “avoiding” James and Lily for the moment. They wanted them to get closer and the only way that could happen is if their own best friends were too wrapped up in each other for them to hang out with them. And their “plan” actually worked. While they busied themselves with each other, Lily and James got closer.

Lily still refused to go any further than friends, especially not until she had the chance to speak with Jasmine about her recently admitted feelings for one James Potter. Plus, Lily still wasn’t going to go further until James proved himself. She wasn’t about to date some egotistical toe rag just because he didn’t seem so bad. Lily was going to make James earn his way for a date with her.

Little did Lily know, James wasn’t exactly planning on asking her out any time soon. Don’t get him wrong or anything, he still loved Lily, but he was okay just being her friend right now. He didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize the friendship they were cultivating. James knew that if he wanted to have any chance at ever being anything more than with Lily, being friends was a great place to start. Also, this way, they were able to better get to know each other. And despite the fact that James was in love with Lily, he didn’t actually know as much about her as he thought he did. So, on the days leading up to New Years, James learned a lot about the girl who had taken his heart, and in turn, Lily learned a lot about James.

This all lead up to what happened on New Year’s Eve. The day started out like any other day, except instead of Sirius and Jaz hanging out together, they decided they needed a break from each other. They couldn’t be together all the time or else they would drive each other crazy. Plus, this way they were able to find out what has been going on with their best friends the last several days. The couple knew that the two others had gotten closer, but they weren’t exactly sure what had happened after the ball. Jasmine had wanted to find out the very next day, but Sirius had distracted her that morning as well as the entire rest of the day. Jasmine would have gone to Lily the next day, but her and Sirius came up with a “plan” to make sure that Lily and James would continue to get closer.

Anyway, after breakfast on New Year’s Eve, Jasmine went to hang out with Lily and Sirius spent the day with James.

Lily and Jaz spent most of the day in Lily’s room, where Lily filled Jasmine in on what happened after the ball. “After I stormed out of the ball, I went to your room because you were supposed to follow me not James.” Lily glared at her cousin. “So, why didn’t you follow me, Mina? We made eye contact, so I know you knew that I wanted to talk with you.”

“Oh, gosh, Lils. I’m so sorry about that. I was about to follow you, but Sirius stopped me. Then I got distracted and kind of forgot you wanted to vent to me about…” Jasmine trailed off. Before she could get too guilty about not telling Lily the whole truth, she realized something. “Wait, did you just call him James?”

“Um, yes. That is his name after all. Why wouldn’t I call him James? He is my friend after all.”

Jasmine stared at her cousin. Sure, she had been hoping that James and Lily had actually become a couple or even friends, but she wasn’t as sure after she saw Lily storm out of the ballroom she wasn’t as hopeful about the outcome. “Wait a minute. Since when are the two of you friends? If I remember correctly, you told me that you could never be friends with him nor did you ever want to be. So, what changed Lils? What happened after the ball?”

“Well, let me finish my story and I will tell you.” Jasmine gave Lily a sheepish smile and motioned for her to tell her story. “So, after I locked myself in your room I fumed for a bit. Then at one point I started crying because my night was ruined because I couldn’t handle James. Anyway, I think James heard me crying because he kind of ‘found’ me in your room. He only knew it was me because he heard my voice. I obviously didn’t want to talk to him, but he insisted on talking to me. He kept on begging me to come out so that he could apologize, or at least I think that is what he was doing. I’m not sure because after the first time I tuned him out.

“Instead of listening, I was busy figuring out my feelings. Mina, I got so upset just because he wanted to know why I wasn’t calling him James, and I didn’t even know why I was so upset. Then I realized something.” Lily didn’t continue right away.

“What is it Lils? What did you realize?” Jasmine asked trying to coax the information out of Lily.

“I realized that… that I, um, fancy him.” Lily said the last part quietly.

“What was that? I didn’t hear that last part, Lils,” Jasmine teased.

“I know you heard that last part Mina, so don’t you dare make me say it again,” Lily threatened.

“Fine, fine,” Jasmine agreed. “But really, you fancy James Potter? No way!”

Lily narrowed her eyes. “You already knew. How could you possibly already know? I didn’t even admit it to myself until that night.”

“Because I know you Lils. It was obvious that you had noticed that he had changed over the summer. There is also the fact that you got him a pretty thoughtful gift for Christmas. It was clear that you were starting to feel something toward James that was not hatred.”

“Ugh,” Lily groaned. “I can’t believe you knew already. Although there is one thing that you don’t know that really contributed toward my newfound feelings for James.” Jaz cocked her head to the side as if questioning what she could have possibly missed. “That Hogsmeade weekend that you went on with just Sirius, remember?”

“Oh, you mean the Hogsmeade weekend where you all worked together to try and set me and Sirius up. Yeah, I remember. What about it?” There was some resentment in Jasmine’s tone, but Lily chose to ignore it.

“Yeah, that weekend. Well, I spent a good part of it with just James reluctantly, but I realized then that he wasn’t as he presents himself to be. He’s not exactly the egotistical toe rag that he was last hear. From that trip onward, I started looking at James differently. I still thought he was an arse, but he wasn’t as bad as I thought he was.”

“Oh, wow. Lils, I’m glad you don’t think James is as bad as you thought he was. He is one of my best friends after all. Now, let’s talk about you fancying him because he obviously fancies you too.”

“Don’t you even go there, Mina. I am not going to ask him on a date just because I fancy him. He has to earn a date if he wants one. I am not just going to fall all over him. So, until he stops his bullying ways and matures enough, there will be no date for him. For now, I am content with just being his friend.”

Jasmine gaped at her cousin. “Woah, Lils. Don’t you think that is a bit harsh. I mean I get the whole him being a bully thing and all, but he knows that you aren’t like that. I know you aren’t like that either, so why the wait?”

“Because Mina. How can I know this won’t end terribly if I don’t make him earn it? You saw what happened with Severus, albeit I didn’t fancy him, but I ignored what he was doing. I don’t want that happening again. I will not go out with anyone who thinks they are above the rules.”

“Oh, Lils, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about that. Okay, I respect your decision. That doesn’t mean I like it, but I will respect it.”

“I know you won’t tell him either Mina, but if you do, I will end you. I don’t care that you are my cousin and best friend, I will end you.”

Jaz held her hands up defensively. “Woah, geez, Mina. You know I won’t tell him even if I think you would be perfect together.”

The rest of the day the girls talked about everything and nothing. Jaz told Mina about her time with Sirius over the past several days. Lily told Jaz about what her and James had done while the other two were preoccupied. Before either of them knew it, they were having a sleep over in Lily’s room and doing each other’s makeup. Overall, it had been a great day for the girls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N I really enjoyed writing the Jily in this chapter and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. Again, I appreciate all of my readers so very much, but I won’t know whether you enjoyed the chapter if you don’t say anything. 😊
> 
> Happy New Year,  
> 😊 Knk6700 😉


	17. The Changes Between Them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's back to Hogwarts for the Marauders and Lily, but what will the news of a new couple bring for the group and its dynamic. And what's going on between James and Lily?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N [in a sing-songy voice] I’m Back. Sorry for the very long wait for a new chapter my fellow Potterheads and wonderful readers. I’ve been a bit obsessed with NCIS and its fanfiction of the time being as well as focused on my classes. That being said, after this chapter, it might be a while before I find another chance to finish and publish the next one. It isn’t complete just yet, but it’s getting there. I’m thinking 2 or 3 more chapters after this one, but we will see what happens when I get inspired. Now on with the story. 😊
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 17: The Changes Between Them

They had all just been dropped off on Platform 9 ¾ by James’ parents. They had helped them get their things onto the train before saying goodbye to them all. They hoped to see Jasmine and Lily again sometime soon. And the girls promised to stop by sometime over the summer if they could.

Aboard the train, the four would have went their separate ways just then, but Lily didn’t leave them. Instead, Lily walked and talked with all three of them until they reached the Marauders’ usual compartment. She had insisted that she didn’t need to find her friends right away. Lily didn’t mind tagging along with them, especially if it gave her more time with her cousin, or so she claimed as her excuse. So, Lily had went along with the boys and her cousin to find the two missing Marauders in their compartment, with Jasmine holding Sirius’ hand the entire way there.

Upon reaching the compartment, the three of them said their goodbyes to Lily before they entered the compartment together. At this point, Jaz had dropped Sirius’ hand that she had been holding on their walk to the compartment. The reason for this being that Jasmine and Sirius, or as James had been calling them “Sazzy”, had talked about telling the rest of the other two boys the previous night. They both decided they would definitely tell them on the train ride back to Hogwarts, but them being the people that they were, they were going to have a little fun with it. They were pranksters after all, so of course they weren’t going to straight up tell the others that they were dating now. So, “Sazzy” had come up with a brilliant plan to drop a bunch of hints around the two boys until they figured it out (or something like that). They did make sure to tell James about their plan, so that he wouldn’t mess it up.

James, though, had a different plan. He would let the couple do their plan until they fell asleep, which James knew they would. They were up late last night…. talking. James only knew this because he had gotten up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water. He happened to pass their rooms on his way to the kitchen, and he could hear them talking in Sirius’ room. He is pretty sure nothing happened, otherwise he would probably kick Sirius’ ass. Jasmine was like a sister to him, so no matter the fact that Sirius was his best friend and practically his brother, he would not tolerate it if he hurt her. Plus, Lily would help him kick Sirius’ ass.

Anyway, James had a plan of his own that once the two fell asleep on the train ride, they would definitely get all cuddly and coupley and cutesy and stuff. Obviously, their other friends would notice, so that was when James planned to tell them all about how the plan they had come up with, as well as anything the two of them had left out when they told the other boys about their breaks. And this is exactly what would have happened on the Hogwarts Express that day, but alas, both of their plans fell through.

Upon entering the compartment, Jasmine and Sirius began initiating their own plan. They sat on the same side together, while James sat next to Remus who was sitting next to Peter on the other side of the compartment. Once they were all settled, Sirius and Jasmine went about executing their plan, but it didn’t last long when the topic of what happened over break came up.

“So, how was your guys break? Me and Peter were just talking about ours, but nothing really interesting happened during mine.” Remus asked the trio that had entered the compartment only moments ago.

Sirius gasped dramatically. “How could you say that Moony?! You same us three over the break and we are anything but boring.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Get over yourself Padfoot. I said my break was overall uninteresting. And my time at Potter Manor was fun, but nothing all that exciting happened while I was there.”

“Oh Moony, if only you had come a few days earlier. You missed all the interesting and exciting drama by a couple of days.” Everyone turned to look at James. Both Jaz and Sirius were glaring at him both mentally telling him to shut up. He was ruining their plan, as well as his own, but they didn’t know that. James, on the other hand, decided to throw away his old plan and just tell the other two right then and there what happened over the break. The reactions from Sirius and Jasmine were just too good to pass up.

Remus, meanwhile, was looking at James curiously wondering what he could have possibly missed and why they didn’t tell him about it when he was there. He voiced his first question, “What are you talking about Prongs? What did I miss?”

James flashed the couple a smirk, which was met with glares from both of them, but he didn’t care. “You see my dear, Moony, the planets aligned and just for one moment, Lily actually agreed to let me escort her to the annual Potter Christmas Ball this year. I even got her to dance with me.”

Jasmine and Sirius stared at James in disbelief. They were so sure that he was about to ruin their entire plan that they had come up with last night, but then he didn’t. They both let out a sigh of relief, but it was a bit premature as they weren’t exactly out of the woods yet.

Remus and Peter were also staring at James in disbelief, but for an entirely different reason than the other two. They were both astounded that Lily had actually gave James the time of day after everything that happened with them. But after shaking off the shock and disbelief, Remus remembered that James had said he should have come a few days earlier, but the ball would have been a few days after he had come to Potter Manor. He knew that what James told them, although surprising and probably pretty dramatic knowing the two of them, that the ball was not what James originally wanted to say. And Remus wanted to know what had happened the days leading up to him coming over, so he voiced his thoughts once again. “Well, that in itself sounds like it was filled with drama, but you said, ‘if you only came a few days earlier’ and the ball was after I came over to Potter Manor. So, what happened in the days leading up to my visit, James?”

“Oh, I did, didn’t I?” James had a mischievous glint in his eyes that the couple clearly saw. They knew they were doomed now. There was no way that James wasn’t going to tell them now. He had planned for Remus to realize his mistake. “Well then,” James continued, “I guess I should tell you happened before you came over, but I think the new couple, Sazzy should tell you. Don’t you think, Sazzy?” With that last question he turned to Sirius and Jasmine to get their response.

Sirius and Jasmine knew it was hopeless to get out of this situation without telling them what happened over the break. There was no way that James would let them either. So, they turned to each other and agreed that they would both tell the story starting from the day before which is really what started it all in the first place. Although during their silent conversation, Jasmine was still hesitant to tell the other two boys about her family life prior to moving in with Lily, but Sirius grabbed her hand and squeezed it to reassure her. He would be there for her no matter what. Plus, Sirius believed the boys would be very understanding of what happened in Jasmine’s life. They were understanding when Sirius told them about his home life, well the parts that he had told them.

Anyway, while Sazzy was having their silent conversation, the two boys out of the loop were looking very confused while James was smirking. Remus and Peter had caught on to the fact that James had called their other two friends a couple, but they didn’t understand why they hadn’t just come out and told them. Remus in particular was confused and a little hurt that Jasmine and Sirius hadn’t told him while they were planning on getting James and Lily together. And not that he thought about it, Remus would have to ask how the plan went over later. He didn’t think it ended with James and Lily together as they had hoped, but things seemed better since Lily willingly walked with them to the compartment.

Before Remus got lost any further in his own thoughts, Jasmine spoke up. “I guess the cat is out of the bag now, thanks James.” Cue glare directed at one James Potter. “Anyway, James is right, Sirius and I are a couple now.”

Before she could say anymore, Remus finally spoke up. “Finally! I can’t believe how long that took. I mean seriously, you two really know how to beat around the bush. What I can’t understand is why didn’t you tell me when I was over at Potter Manor? I mean I spent almost the entire day with you guys, and you didn’t say anything to me. Why?”

“Oh, um, sorry Moony. It wasn’t anything personal. We actually didn’t mean to hide it from you at all. It wasn’t until later that we even realized we were ‘hiding’ our relationship. And once we did realize, we decided it was best just to tell you and Peter at the same time. I didn’t want Peter to feel left out anyway.” Jasmine gave the mousy boy a smile to show that she just wanted to include him. Jasmine thought that Peter felt excluded and that was the reason he wasn’t hanging out with them as much anymore. She just wanted him to still feel like he was a part of the group.”

“I see. I understand guys,” Remus replied. “But now you have to tell us how it happened. It’s only fair since you left us out of the loop.”

The couple was not shocked by his demand. They were expecting to have to tell them the full story, but Jasmine was still hesitant even if she were sure they would all be understanding. She just didn’t want to seem weak. So, Sirius decided to start. “Well, first off it all started the day before we actually got together. How we got together is not nearly as interesting as what lead up to it.” Sirius glanced at the girl beside him before turning his attention back to the others. Though, before he continued, Sirius draped his arm over Jasmine’s shoulders in order to offer any support his girlfriend might need. “It all started when Jasmine got a letter from her other cousin and Lily’s sister, Petunia.”

Jasmine interrupted her boyfriend. “I’m not sure if you guys know this, but Petunia is not the nicest person on the planet. She’s been jealous of Lily and I since we found out that we were witches. That jealousy resulted in Petunia actually hating us for having powers while she doesn’t. So, she has said some really harsh things to both me and Lily over the years. I won’t get into that though.”

This new information came as a shock to Remus. He didn’t expect the girl he did rounds with to have such a terrible sister. He wanted to ask more about it but didn’t get the chance as Sirius picked up the story again. “Yes, Petunia is not a great person or, so I’ve been told. Anyway, Petunia wrote some really nasty things in a letter to the girls that sent Mare to her room crying. I wasn’t there when it happened, but from what Lily told me and James, the letter led to Mare locking herself in her room. Apparently, Lily usually would comfort her, but she told us that Mare wouldn’t let her in to comfort her this time.”

Jasmine interrupted again. “Actually, Lily never asked to come in. She never knocked on the door or anything. Huh. I wondered why she only turned the doorknob.” Sirius gave her a confused look, and seeing this, Jasmine explained her thoughts. “Obviously, she was trying set us up again. Lily was the only one who knew about both of our home lives, so she knew this would be the only chance we would both reveal them.”

Understanding appeared Sirius face. “Wow, the things that girl did to get us together. I am grateful though.” Jasmine gave him a curious look. “Well without her, I wouldn’t have you right now.” Then he gave Jaz a kiss on the cheek.

Their moment was interrupted by a cough from James. This drew the two back down. They remembered that they had been in the middle of a story, which Jasmine decided to pick up this time. “So, anyway, Sirius came to comfort me. He told me about his home life, as I am sure you are aware of. Then I told him about mine.” Jasmine paused to take a deep breath before continuing. She needed a moment to prepare herself for the other two boys’ reactions. “Here’s the thing. Before I came to live with Lily, I lived with my mother. My father died just as I had started at Beauxbatons, so I was only 11 years old. And he was my absolute favorite person. I loved him so much, and it hurt a lot when I found out he died. I loved my mother too, but it just wasn’t the same, especially after I came home for the first time after my father died. When I came home for Christmas that first year, I found my mother drunk. Then she started calling me all these names and everything. It was the last Christmas I spent with her, especially since it continued over the summer. And I didn’t tell anyone not even Lily who I still saw every summer. Instead, I kept it all to myself because I could handle it.” Jasmine could feel the tears starting to form in her eyes, but she could also feel Sirius’ arm wrapped around her for support. “Then the worst happened. On my fifteenth birthday, I found my mother dead. She had drank herself to death. It was the worst birthday ever. Thankfully, Lily and her parents had been there at the time. It was then that I told Lily everything that had been going on at home. I should have told her sooner. Maybe if I had, my mother would still be alive.” Then Jasmine broke down into tears.

Sirius pulled his girlfriend into a tight embrace. He did his best to calm her down and comfort her. He kept whispering into her hair: “You aren’t alone, Mare” and “It’s okay, Mare. I’m here.” His comforting and encouraging words were exactly what Jasmine needed and wanted to hear.

It was long before Jasmine stopped crying and had fallen asleep in Sirius’ arms. Not wanting to disturb her, Sirius didn’t move, but he did continue with the story. He was speaking much quieter this time. “Well, after we confided in each other, we ended up falling asleep and cuddling in Jasmine’s bed. It wasn’t until the next day that I had the courage to tell her how I really felt about her. She made the first move, though. She kissed me first, but I kissed back. Then we talked about our feelings for each other and such. By the end, we were snogging on her bed, which is where James found us. And that, my dear friends, is how we got together. Now if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to follow Mare’s lead and take a nap. Wake us up when we are close.” And soon after Sirius was asleep.

While the couple slept, James took the time to gather Remus’ and Peter’s reactions from the story they were just told. It was clear they were both just as shocked as he had been when he first found out from Lily that day. James could tell the boys (mainly Remus) also had questions, but since Sazzy was now asleep they would have to wait. “ _Though,_ ” James thought, “ _I know just as much about them, so I could answer their questions for them._ ” So, James decided he would help his best friend out this time. “Well, boys, I’m sure you must have some questions for the happy couple, but since they are asleep, I would be happy to answer any questions.”

“Actually, James, I have a question for you.” Remus was going to find out what was going on between him and Lily. This was the perfect time to find out how the plan had panned out.

James cocked an eyebrow to show he was listening. “What is it my dear Moony?”

“ _It’s now or never_.” Remus thought. “What’s going on with you and Lily? Because before the break she despised you. Now she actually tolerated you long enough to walk with you to the compartment. You two were not like this when I saw you over the break, so you better tell me what has happened before I ask Lily during rounds.”

“Woah, woah, woah. Hold your horse Moony. No need to threaten to ask Lily. I’ll tell you exactly what happened.” Remus doubt that, but it would be best to hear James’ side of the story before he asked Lily about what really happened. “Moony, it was actually rather intense. I escorted her to the ball where we danced and laughed and overall had a great time, until I asked the wrong question. Then she got all mad at me, and we started yelling at each other. Finally, Lily ended up storm off out of the ballroom all because of a stupid question.”

Remus was surprised. He hadn’t expected James to sound so hurt that Lily got mad at him for asking a question. She got mad at him all the time for asking her out and such. He usually did stupid stuff that mad her mad at him, but it sounded different this time. Remus wondered what the question was that made Lily so mad, so he asked, “What was the question?”

“I just asked her why she wasn’t calling me James when clearly she has called each of you by your first names. It just didn’t make sense. It still doesn’t make sense.” James let out a sigh. Though him and Lily had gotten closer over the last several days, he still didn’t understand the girl at all. They were friends now, but that didn’t mean that James understood the girl’s motives or thoughts at all.

“Wait. Since when has Lily called Sirius by his first name. Last I checked, she was still referring to him as Black.”

“Oh, yeah. You probably didn’t notice since you spent most of your time with Sazzy over there, but it started after they got together.” James gestured at the sleeping couple. “I think she is trying to be supportive of their relationship or something, so she started to refer to Sirius by his first name instead of his surname. I really don’t know why she started calling him by his first name, but it was really frustrating and confusing. I had to ask. How else was I supposed to ever have a chance with Lily if she still referred to me as Potter?” Remus shrugged in response, but James didn’t really notice. He just continued to ramble and rant about the events of the ball. “So, I asked her a simple question and she got all mad and didn’t really answer my question. Then I got mad that she didn’t answer, which led to us yelling at each other. That led to Lily yelling at me and then storming out of the ballroom altogether. It was ridiculous. She left me standing in the middle of the ballroom dance floor with everyone staring at me. We made quite a scene. I still can’t believe she left me in the middle of the dance floor. And I still don’t understand why she was so upset by my question. It wasn’t like I said something rude or mean. It just doesn’t make any sense.” James continued to ramble on about how he could never understand the female mind, let alone Lily Evans.

James continued to rant and ramble for a several minutes before Remus finally stopped him. “Prongs, what are you even talking about anymore?” That shut James up as he lost track of what he was even saying. It was quiet in the compartment then, which Remus appreciated. He needed some time to run through what James had just told him. It appeared that their plan hadn’t exactly panned out, but still somehow James and Lily still ended up as friends. Then, if what James said happened, there was the issue of why Lily got so angry at James. Remus had to agree with his friend. It did not make sense that Lily got so mad at him. Remus would have to figure that part out later. He would have to talk with Jasmine and Sirius later to figure out what they knew. They would know more since it was their best friends that they were all trying to get together.

The quiet didn’t last, sadly. Much to Remus’ dismay, James got finally realized what he was talking about, but didn’t get to say much before Remus interrupted him. Remus didn’t want to listen to James ranting about Lily anymore. He had to find out how James and Lily actually ended up as friends after all that. “Prongs, wait. Before you start on another tirade, what happened after Lily stormed out? And how did you end up friends after all that. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Oh, um, well, initially I was in shock, but once that wore off, I followed her out. Then I searched the whole Manor for her and finally found her in Jazzy’s room. Not sure why she was in there since Jazzy was still at the ball. That’s another thing that didn’t make sense.” James paused for a moment before continuing. “Well, anyway, I tried to get her to open the door for me so I could apologize in person, but after my first request she didn’t respond anymore. Eventually I gave up on my pleading and tried other methods, but it seemed she wasn’t coming out of that room any time soon. So, instead of completely giving up and going to my room, I decided to wait outside the door for her to finally come out. She eventually did, but we ended up talking in her room instead of Jazzy’s. She didn’t want Jazzy to interrupt us or anything. We ended up talking in her room. I apologized for making her mad. Then we ended up agreeing that we would work at being friends from then on. And we’ve been hanging out more since. It was nice to have a friend while Padfoot ditch me for Mare over the holiday.”

Before James could say anymore, Remus stopped him. “So, wait you’re telling me that Lily just forgave you just like that. No bodily harm or anything?” James nodded his head. “That is actually quite impressive. I’m surprised she didn’t do anything more.”

“To be honest, so am I. Lily can be scary when she wants to be. I guess she wanted to be my friend as much as I wanted to be hers, otherwise I’m pretty sure I would have ended up injured in some way.”

Remus decide then that he definitely needed to get Lily’s side of the story. There had to be more to it because the Lily that Remus knew was stubborn and wouldn’t usually forgive James that easily. Plus, Remus wasn’t exactly sure why Lily had gotten so mad in the first place. He had his suspicions, but the only way to confirm them would be to corner Lily when they had rounds together. It would be the only time he could get her alone.

For the next several minutes the boys were silent. Remus didn’t respond to James’ assumption because he was stuck in his own thoughts and suspicions about Lily’s reasons for forgiving James so easily. Meanwhile James was caught up in his own confusion about the events. He had been hoping that Remus would be able to help him understand the girl’s motives, but it seemed that James was out of luck on that end.

It wasn’t long before they were getting close to Hogwarts and needed to wake the sleeping couple. James told Remus he would do it, but Remus had been wary about letting him do it. He eventually relented when he realized that there was no way that he was going to be able to talk him out of it before the train got to Hogwarts. So, instead, Remus went to change into his robes. It was then that he finally realized that Peter was no longer in the compartment. He brushed that off though. He figured his friend had gotten tired of hearing about James’ exploits with Lily over the break and went off to wherever he went to when he wasn’t with the rest of them.

By the time Remus got back to the compartment, both Sirius and Jasmine were awake and in their robes. James was also in his own robes. The only thing that told Remus that James hadn’t woken the couple up gently was the fact that they were both angrily glaring at the boy in question. Meanwhile, James had on an innocent look as if he didn’t do anything wrong, but Remus wasn’t fooled. He knew James well enough to know he probably shouted at them to get up, which would have startled them awake as well as piss them off. 

Remus entered the compartment hoping that his presence would help calm down the new couple. Unfortunately, it seemed to make it worse. Instead of just glaring at James, after Remus came in, they started to glare at him too. “Woah, hey guys, I’m not the one who decided to wake you up the way that you were woken up.”

“No, but you were the one that let him wake us up.” Jasmine angrily pointed over at James. “How could you Remus? You knew exactly what he was going to do to wake us up and you let him do it. Ugh. I don’t understand you boys.” And before Remus could even begin to state his own defense, Jasmine stormed out of the compartment. With her gone, the tension and anger that had been in the atmosphere suddenly dissipated. Sirius was no longer glaring at them, but instead looked resigned. He knew exactly why Remus didn’t stop James and he had been expecting James to be the one to wake them up. So, Sirius wasn’t actually all that angry at either boy. Sure, he had been pissed off at James when he first woke up the way that he did, but he knew his best friend and he hadn’t expected anything different from them.

“Aren’t you going to go after her, Pads?” James finally asked after several moments of silence.

“Nah, she needs to cool down. I don’t need her getting angry at me now.”

Remus looked between the two. “So, what did you do James?”

“Oh, you know, the usual.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Of course, you did. You know you could have just shook them instead of yelling and shaking them awake.”

“But where’s the fun in that?”

Remus rolled his eyes again. “Forget it. You are a lost cause.” Then Remus remember that Jasmine was mad at him as well. “Ugh. Damn you James, now Jaz is mad at me too because you were too stubborn as usually to just let me wake them up. You are an absolute moron.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault she got mad at you too. I just woke them up the way that I wake everyone up.”

Sirius could sense an argument coming, and he didn’t think he could handle another one after just going through one between Jasmine and James. “Stop. Damnit guys just stop. I will talk to Mare later. Right now, will you guys just shut up. I really don’t need to hear another stupid arse argument right now.”

Both boys turned to Sirius with stunned expressions on their faces. They had not been expecting that outburst. And because of their shock they immediately apologized to each other and moved on to another topic. It wasn’t long before they arrived at the Hogsmeade station. Jasmine hadn’t come back, but none of them had been expecting her too. Although, Sirius was a bit nervous about this fact. He hadn’t necessarily expected his girlfriend to come back to the compartment, but he wasn’t sure if she had expected him to follow her out of the compartment. He was worried that he should have followed her, but the boys convinced him that it was the right decision. Afterall, as James pointed out, they had been spending a lot of time together lately. They couldn’t be together all the time or else they might just actually kill each other.

So, as they three of them (none of them concerned about where Peter might be) rode in the carriages up to Hogwarts, they talked about the possible pranks they could pull in the coming turn as well as their classes. They knew soon, they would have to start thinking about what classes they wanted to take next year for NEWTs. They also knew that McGonagall, or Minerva as James and Sirius sometimes liked to refer to her as, would be pulling them aside for meetings about what they wanted to do after Hogwarts. Each boy still not sure what they were planning on doing but hoping that they would all at least stay in contact with each other. So, as the carriages came to a stop outside of Hogwarts, each boy had a grin on their face as they stepped into the school that would bring them one hell of a second term that none of them would have ever expect let alone see coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N And I finally finished this chapter. Hooray. I hope you all enjoyed it. And if you did enjoy it, please review or comment or whatever. Just let me know what you think. Plus, I enjoy hearing all of your guys’ thought. They inspire me. And also, if you have any ideas for the story, I’m all ears. I would love to hear them. I can’t promise that I will use them, but I could always use some inspiration.
> 
> Hope to see you all sooner rather than later,  
> 😊 Knk6700 😊


	18. The Truth about Jily

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When they put their heads together, Jasmine and Remus can accomplish anything. It doesn't hurt that they have a little bit of help and encouragement from Sirius either. But in the end the Marauders stick together and protect their own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N I’ve done it again. I’ve gone and finished another chapter for you my lovely readers. I originally wanted to finish this over Valentine’s Day weekend, but I got roped into watching a really cute, animated movie with my roommates. Better late than never with the Chapter though. I really hope you enjoy this chapter.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.

Chapter 18: The Truth about Jily 

The beginning of term started out just like any other term for the Marauders and Lily. Jasmine had gotten over her anger at James and Remus by the next morning, so it really was a normal beginning of term for them. They were all keeping up with their classes, and the boys plus Jaz had already pulled a prank within the first couple days. Everything was the same as it had been since Jasmine first came to Hogwarts the previous year. It only changed when Remus and Lily finally had their first set of rounds together, which had been after the first week of classes.

Remus and Lily had gone out of the common room as they usually would, saying goodbye to the other boys and Jasmine. Although, instead of Lily ignoring James’ goodbye, Lily responded with her own goodbye before quickly hurrying out of the common room. Remus followed her out soon after. When he found her waiting in the hallway, he saw the remnants of what appeared to be a blush on her face. Remus couldn’t be sure it was a blush, but he was pretty sure that it was, especially since he still had his own suspicions about Lily’s reasonings for running out on James at the annual Potter Christmas Ball. And this would be his chance to finally get some answers about his suspicions.

Remus waited until they were far away from the common room before her broached the subject. He didn’t need James overhearing or anyone else for that matter, especially since that would make it very unlikely for Lily to actually tell him the truth. “So, Lily, how was your Christmas break at the Potters? I hope James didn’t give you too much trouble.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, Remus. James was actually fun to hang out. It wasn’t as bad as it probably would have been if I had gone home for Christmas. James is nowhere near as bad as Petunia.”

Remus tried his best to act confused upon hearing Petunia’s name, but apparently acting is not anywhere in his future. His confused act did not fool Lily because she was clearly giving him a look that said _I know you know about my sister_. So, Remus gave up the act and confessed. “I’d prefer James over your sister any day, Lily.”

“Yeah, I would too, Remus,” Lily agreed. Then she saw Remus’ questioning look and answered the unasked question. “Don’t worry. I know that Jasmine is the one who told you guys about Petunia. She told me about it after she found me on the train after you and James pissed her off.” Remus opened his mouth to defend himself, but Lily didn’t let him. “Oh, Remus, come off it. You could have stopped James, but you didn’t. You knew exactly how he was going to wake them up and you didn’t stop him.”

Remus wasn’t about to just “stand” there and let Lily tell him that he could have stopped James when Remus knew there was no way that could have. “No, Lily, I couldn’t have stopped him. I argued with him to let me wake them up instead, but as we argued more, our voices got louder. Then I would have just been playing into James’ plan anyway for waking them up. Plus, I knew soon after we started arguing that it was pointless. James was going to get his way. You don’t know him like I do. You might think you do since you are friends with him now, but I’ve been his friend for longer. I know how he gets when he puts his mind to something. He is so stubborn it is infuriating sometimes.”

Before Remus could continue his monologue, Lily interrupted him. “Woah, woah, woah, Remus. I’m sorry. I guess you’re right. I don’t exactly know James, but I figured that my cousin did. It didn’t even occur to me that she might not know him as well as you might. Plus, she did come to me angry, and Mina doesn’t always think rationally when she is upset. So, I’m sorry for assuming, Remus.”

Remus nodded his head to show that he accepted the girl’s apology. “It’s fine Lily. Jaz isn’t even angry at us anymore.” Remus changed the subject. “While we are talking about your new friendship with James, James told me about what happened at the ball.”

“Oh?” Lily asked as she raised on of her eyebrows.

“Yeah, and I noticed something that I have been meaning to run by you.” Lily didn’t respond this time, but Remus took the silence as indication that he should continue. “I’ve had my suspicions about your feelings for James for a while now, and they were only strengthened by how you reacted at the ball. So, I’m going to give you the chance to tell me your side of the story before I go to James with my suspicions.” Remus wished he didn’t have to resort to the blackmail, but he knew that it would be the only way that Lily would actually tell him the truth about her feelings for James. He knew she would tell him her side of story since they were friends, but that didn’t mean she would confide in him, especially since he was one of James’ best mates.

At Remus’ threat, Lily’s even widened in surprise. “You wouldn’t Remus!” Lily was clearly distressed at hearing Remus’s threat.

“I won’t if you tell me what James’ left out of his story.” The questioning look that Lily gave him led Remus to elaborating further. “Your feelings, Lily. James only could see that you were mad at him, but There is no way that you were that angry with him and forgave him that soon after.”

Lily sighed. She knew there was no way she was getting out of this. She would just have to confess to Remus and make him swear not to tell anyone else. There was no way that Lily was going to let anyone else know how she felt about James Potter, especially James. “Fine. I fancy James. Are you happy now?”

Remus gave her a wide grin in response. “Very. I figured you fancied him, especially after how you reacted to him asking a simple question. So, tell me everything.” Then seeing Lily’s apprehensive look, Remus added, “Don’t worry, Lily, I swear I won’t tell James. It will be our secret.” Remus had to know when Lily had started to feel this way and why she hadn’t acted on her feelings yet. It was the only way that he would be able to figure out how to finally get the two of them together, with a little help from Sirius and Jaz.

Lily gave him a small smile. “I’ll tell you, but you have to swear you won’t tell not just James, but anyone else. I can’t have this getting back to him.”

“Okay. I swear I won’t tell anyone else, Lily. I won’t even tell Jaz, but I really think you should tell her.” Well, he could somehow figure out how to do this alone, but Remus really hoped that Lily would take his advice and tell Jasmine. If he could have just one other person to help him with his plan to get James and Lily together, Remus preferred that it would be Jasmine who knew Lily the best out of all of them.

Lily waved off his suggestion before telling Remus about her feelings for James. She told him about how she started to feel different about James that one Hogsmeade weekend when they were spying on Jasmine and Sirius. Then she told Remus about how she felt at the ball. She told him about how she refused to let James know that she reciprocated his feelings to an extent because he needed to earn her love. She wasn’t just going to relent and tell him that she now fancied him just because he fancied her back. James had done nothing to earn her feelings for him. He was still the bully that he had always been even if they had eased up a bit on it.

Upon hearing Lily’s reasoning for not telling James, Remus started to see all the pieces come together. It made sense that Lily wouldn’t tell James because he was still an arrogant toe rag, as Lily had called him before, at times even though it had lessened over the past term. Remus had his suspicions that it had something to do with Sirius coming to live at Potter Manor, but he never voiced this to either boy. He was just glad that they had at least started to see the errors of their ways. But Remus had to know why she agreed to be James friend if she was still not okay with the bullying. “Wait a minute, Lily. I get why you won’t tell James, but why even bother trying to be his friends if you still don’t like that he is bullying?”

Lily sighed. “Because, Remus, I still fancy him. I want to at least get a chance to get to know him better even if I refuse to be with him. At least as friends, I get the chance to get to know James and he gets a chance to show me whether or not he will change for me or not. I want to know whether or not he is willing to grow up. Being friends with him will give me that opportunity. Plus, he is still one of Mina’s best friends, and practically a brother to her. I may as well try to at least be friends with him for Mina’s sake.”

“That is actually really practical and sweet, Lily. But I will say this, don’t hurt James or well, you don’t want to know what I might do.”

Lily gulped but decided that it would be best to change the subject now. So, for the rest of their rounds, Remus and Lily chatted about how their classes were going. And before they knew it, they were done and back at the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Upon entering, they each went their separate ways. Each giving the other plenty to think about as they went to bed that night.

* * *

Remus kept his promise to Lily and didn’t tell anyone else about her feelings for James, but that didn’t stop Jasmine from still finding out about her cousin’s feelings for the boy that was practically her brother. It was a couple days after Lily’s confession when Jasmine happened to by luck wake up before Lily. It was unusual for her to wake up before her cousin because Jaz was not a morning person at all. But it was a good thing that Jasmine actually woke up early by herself that morning.

When Jasmine first woke up, she was a bit confused. She couldn’t hear any rustling or her cousin yelling at her to get up. To find out why that was, Jasmine peaked out of the curtains that were over her bed and saw all her roommates bed curtains were all still closed. She was, for once, the first one to wake up. Usually that was her cousin Lily who woke up first. By this point, Jasmine knew there was no way that she would be able to go back to sleep, so she started to silently get ready for the day. She went to one of the bathrooms that was in the room with her robes. Then she actually took a shower and got ready for the day. Normally, Jaz never woke up early enough to take a shower in the morning, so this was a new thing for her. It actually helped to wake her up.

Anyway, when Jasmine finally exited the shower all dressed, she saw that her cousin Lily was up and getting ready now. Apparently, Lily didn’t hear the door to the bathroom open and close or at least she didn’t bother to look up to see who it possibly could be. She actually seemed to be too distracted by something that Jasmine didn’t notice at first. As Jasmine got closer to her cousin, she saw what was distracting her cousin so much. It was the necklace that James had given her for Christmas. Lily was looking at it before she finally put it on. Then she hid in beneath the robes that she was already wearing.

Jasmine didn’t want to confront Lily about the necklace right that moment, so Jaz raced back into the bathroom to avoid Lily from seeing her. Jasmine stayed in the bathroom for another minute before finally coming back out. She saw Lily sitting at the desk beside her bed reading a book. It was then that Jasmine decided she was going to scare her cousin. She walked up behind Lily and right next to her ear, Jasmine whispered, “Good morning, Lils.”

Lily jumped and dropped the book that she had been reading. Luckily, instead of hitting the floor and making a loud sound, Jasmine managed to catch the book before it hit the floor. Jasmine gave the book back to Lily, who was currently glaring at Jaz. She looked really pissed off at Jasmine, but she couldn’t start berating her with the rest of the girls still sleeping. Instead, Lily grabbed her books for the day and stormed out of the room. Jasmine followed Lily out of the room after a minute of silently laughing. Jasmine just barely spotted Lily storming out of the common room when she exited her dorm room.

In the common room, Jasmine was surprised to see James and Remus sitting there staring at the common room door. Jasmine rushed down to them to see what they could tell her about what happened. “Hey, Prongs, Moony.”

The boys hadn’t seen her coming, so they each were a bit startled by the girl’s greeting. Both boys were quick to recover though, but James was the first one to speak. “Hey, Jazzy. You’re up early today,” James noted. “Any reason?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Jaz rolled her eyes. Then she hit James on the arm. “Grow up. I did not get up early for some clandestine meeting with Sirius. You know him, there is no way he would have even set a meeting this early anyway. He likes his sleep as much as I like mine. I just happened to wake up early.” Jaz was annoyed with James, but she still needed to know what had happened before Lily left the common room. “Anyway, did you guys see Lily storm out her by chance?”

She got a nod from both boys, but James added, “Yeah, she didn’t even acknowledge either of us when we told her good morning. She just stormed right out of here. She was definitely pissed off about something. I’m just glad that it’s not me that she is pissed off at this time.”

Jasmine groaned. “Great. Now I have to deal with Lily being mad at me.”

“Wait, what?! She was mad at you? What did you do to get her so mad, Jazzy?”

“All I did was sneak up behind her and scare her a little bit.”

“How much is a little bit?” James asked of the girl.

“Um, she jumped and dropped the book she was reading. Luckily, I caught the book before it hit the floor and woke our roommates, but still, it’s not like I did something absolutely terrible. I just apologize to her at breakfast. I’ll see you guts later.” And without even waiting to hear a reply, Jasmine was out the door of the common room with her own books for the day. It wasn’t until after Jasmine was out of the common room that she registered that Remus was awfully quiet this morning. She shook that thought off though. She would have more time to think about that later after she apologized to Lily.

Luckily, Lily had cooled down by the time that Jasmine entered the Great Hall prepared to apologize to her cousin even though Jasmine was still confused at why Lily got so mad. Jaz had her suspicions that it might have to do with why Lily was still wearing the necklace James got her and hiding the fact that she was.

Jasmine took the seat next to Lily and started to fill her plate for breakfast. Neither girl spoke, which Jasmine expected. She knew that when her cousin wanted to be, she could be really stubborn. So, this time Jaz would just have to be the bigger person and start off the conversation. “I’m sorry, Lils. I really didn’t think you would be that surprised when I snuck up behind you.”

Lily turned to glare at Jasmine, but seeing the apologetic look on Jaz’s face, Lily’s face softened. “It’s alright, Mina. I was just not expecting you to be up already. Usually, I’m the one to wake you up.”

“Yeah, I just happened for some godforsaken reason woke up early today. I have no explanation for it.” Lily laughed and the girls fell into a comfortable silence as they at their breakfast.

Jasmine wanted to confront Lily about the necklace right then after they ate, but before she could broach the subjected the boys came strolling into the Great Hall. Jasmine hoped that they wouldn’t come over and sit with them for once. She didn’t need them interfering with her interrogation of Lily. Luck was no with her, though. The boys, led by Sirius, who had spotted his girlfriend sitting next to Lily, walked right over and took their usual spots when they would sit with her and Lily.

With the Marauders sitting with them, Jasmine knew she wouldn’t get the chance to ask Lily about the necklace before their first class. Jasmine would have said something to the guys about leaving, but she had been enjoying her boyfriend’s company. So, instead of telling them to leave, Jaz decided she would just have to ask Lily later after their classes.

* * *

It was much later when Jasmine finally was able to confront Lily about the necklace. It actually wasn’t until after dinner that Jaz finally got Lily alone to confront her about the necklace.

On the way back from the Great Hall after dinner, Jasmine pushed Lily into an empty classroom. Then she proceeded cast some spell so that no one would be able to interrupt them or hear their conversation. Jasmine had a feeling that this was going to be something that Lily really didn’t want other finding out.

After Jasmine was done casting her spells and charms, she turned back to her cousin who was staring back at her in surprise. It wasn’t long before her surprise turned into anger. “What the bloody hell, Mina? Why did you drag me in here and cast all those spells and charms? Are you keeping something from me?”

Jasmine cursed under her breath. “Um, no, Lils, I’m not keeping anything from you, but I’m pretty sure you are keeping something from me.”

“What are you talking about, Mina? What could I possibly be keeping from you?”

Jasmine wasn’t about to let Lily get out of this. “The necklace!” Lily’s confused expression led Jaz to explain herself further. “You know the necklace that you are currently wearing, which is the same one that James gave you for Christmas.” The only response Jaz got from Lily was another confused expression, but Jasmine could tell that this one was definitely not as genuine as the first one. Lily knew exactly what Jaz was talking about. Jaz knew she was about to try and deny it, but Jaz wasn’t about to let that happen. So, to prevent Lily from being able to deny it, Jasmine walked right up to her cousin and pulled the necklace out from under Lily’s robes before the girl in question could stop her. “This necklace, Lily. What are you doing wearing it?”

Lily wasn’t sure how she wanted to handle this situation that she was currently stuck in. She could only see two ways out of this: lie to Jasmine about how long she had been wearing the necklace or tell Jasmine about her feelings for one James Potter. Lily was hesitant to tell Jasmine about her feelings for James, not because she thought Jasmine would tell James, but because of Jasmine’s relationship with Sirius. Lily didn’t want to force Jaz to keep something from Sirius. But just as Lily has thought it better to lie, she caught sight of the friendship bracelet she had made Jasmine for Christmas. It was peeking out of the sleeve of Jasmine’s robes. Seeing the friendship bracelet, Lily suddenly felt bad about lying to her cousin. Then Lily remembered Remus’ recommendation from the previous day about telling Lily. That reminder combined with the guilt Lily felt about thinking about lying to her cousin crumbled her resolve. Lily relented and told Jasmine everything.

“Well, um, Mina, I kinda, sorta, really fancy James. Plus, it is such a lovely necklace. It makes me feel all special. He hasn’t given any other girl jewelry before, so I don’t know, it’s just special.”

Jasmine was gaping at her cousin’s words. It was a few minutes before she was able to collect herself so that she could actually form words. Sure, Jasmine had been trying to set James and Lily up, but she had never talked about any boy let alone James Potter like Lily had just talked about the boys who gave her the necklace. And Jasmine hadn’t been expecting to see Lily almost swoon like some of their classmates have over James. It was just a surprise seeing Lily like this. “Wow, Lils. I was not expecting that.”

“Yeah, well, what can I say, I fancy James Potter.”

It was at that confession that Jaz realized that even though Lily fancies James, she hasn’t done anything about it. And Jasmine couldn’t help but to wonder why that could possibly be. “That much was obvious Lils, but why haven’t you told him how you feel. You clearly know that he feels the same way about you. There is nothing stopping you from going for it.”

“Actually, Mina, there is.” Lily’s voice lost all the lovey-doveyness that had been there before. Now her voice was filled with stubbornness and refusal. “There is no way that I am just going to roll over and pretend that James still isn’t an arrogant toe rag. Sure, he is less of one and I have taken that into consideration, but until he stops bullying and finally just grows up, then I will think about agreeing to go on a date with him. Until he cleans up his act, I refuse to go on a date with him.”

Jasmine didn’t think she could be shocked anymore by Lily tonight, but here she was in shock again from Lily. Jaz is so shocked that she isn’t even sure how to begin to respond to what Lily just told her. She understands where Lily is coming from, but damn, James had his work cut out for him. And if Jasmine had any hope of ever getting ‘Jily’ to be a reality, she was going to need some help. Her first thought was Sirius, but that was quickly dashed away when she heard Lily say, “Oh, and Mina, you have to promise me you won’t tell any of the boys. I can’t have this getting back to James. There is no way that he would ever stop if he found out I reciprocated his feelings.” Well, that dashed Jaz’s plans of going to Sirius for help, but Jasmine hadn’t given up hope yet. And just when she had resigned to figure out a plan to get them together herself, Lily added, “Oh, well except Remus.”

“Woah, wait, what? Why can I tell Remus and no one else?”

“Because I already told Remus about my feelings for James the other night when we were on rounds. He confronted me with what I think he had already suspected by blackmailing me into telling him about my feelings for James. At first, I was a bit upset with him for blackmailing me, but I was a bit surprised as well since I didn’t exactly think that Remus had that in him. Although, looking back on it now, it didn’t appear to be his first time blackmailing someone. He is more devious than he looks, Mina.”

Jasmine nodded her head in agreement. “He really is, Lils. You should see him when we are coming up with prank ideas. I don’t even know where he gets these ideas from, but they are brilliant.” Jasmine knew they were starting to get off topic, so she brought them back to the original topic. “So, you fancy James and only Remus and I know?” Lily nodded her head in confirmation. “Okay, well I promise I won’t tell anyone else, Lils. It will be hard to keep this from Sirius, but I think I will be able to manage. Plus, maybe this will be a good thing. I mean we aren’t going to always be able to tell each other everything.”

When Jasmine finished her little spiel, Lily pulled her into a hug and whispered in her ear her thanks. “Thank you so much, Mina. I really appreciate it.” Then Lily pulled back from the embrace. “So, are there any secrets that you might want to tell me now that I’ve shared my secret with you?”

Jasmine froze. “ _She couldn’t possibly know that I am hiding something from her, could she? I’ll just have to play it off that I don’t have any idea what she is talking about just to be sure._ ” Jasmine thought before finally answering Lily’s question. “Nope. I’m pretty sure I don’t have any secrets from you Lils. And if you think I do, I have no idea what it could be.”

“Oh, well, I just thought that there was a reason that you are never in your bed on the night on the full moon. Now you already know that I know about Remus being a werewolf, but that doesn’t explain why you wouldn’t be in the dorm on those nights. It’s not like you are able to help or go with Remus on those nights. You would get seriously injured if you did.”

Jasmine just stared at her cousin. She couldn’t even fathom anything to possibly say in response to Lily’s accusation. It was coming out of nowhere. Jasmine wasn’t even aware that Lily even knew that she had been leaving the dorm room on the nights of the full moon. It was something that Jasmine was sure she had been super careful about keeping from Lily.

“Well, Mina? Your silence already tells me that you are keeping a secret from me, which really hurts since I haven’t been keeping secrets from you. Well, now I haven’t been keeping secrets from you but still.”

Jasmine had to think fast, but for the life of her she couldn’t think of any excuse for why she might be going out on the full moon. The shock was still clouding her mind. So, before she could think of any kind of excuse, Jasmine finally answered her cousin. “It’s not just my secret. I’m sorry, Lils, but I can’t just betray someone else’s trust to tell you my secret.”

Lily, who had been pissed off at Jasmine for keeping a secret from her, was not letting go of her anger. Jasmine’s explanation might not have been the one that Lily had been looking for, but she still understood keeping a secret because someone else was involved. It was similar to the secret she had kept about Sirius’ home life, but yet Lily couldn’t help but wonder who Jasmine was protecting. “I understand, Mina. I wish you could tell me, but I wouldn’t want you breaking the boys’ trust in you.”

Jasmine gaped at Lily. “Wha- How do you know it is the boys’ trust?”

“Well, I didn’t entirely know for sure, but judging from your reaction it is their trust you don’t want to break. Though, I just hope that you all know what you are doing. I would hate it if you got hurt, Mina.”

“Oh, Lils. Don’t worry, we know exactly what we are doing,” Jasmine reassured her cousin. Then she pulled Lily into another hug. After pulling away from each other, Jasmine said, “Well, we better get going, Lils. Don’t want to miss curfew or at least get caught out after curfew.” And with that, both girls rushed up to the Gryffindor common room.

* * *

Since finding out about Lily’s feelings for James, Jasmine had been thinking about how to get them together. She had come up with several ideas so far, but she really needed someone to bounce her ideas off of, and the only person who she could do that with happened to be Remus. The thing was, Jasmine knew she could only talk with Remus when he was alone, which proved to be a difficult task. That boy seemed to always have someone with him. It was rather annoying and frustrating as Jasmine continued to try and get him alone. She finally got him alone when he had told the other boys he was going to the library to go study. Jasmine hadn’t actually planned to ambush Remus in the library, but Sirius had told her that he wanted some guy time with James while Remus was off studying in the library. Meanwhile, Peter was nowhere to be found, so Jasmine knew this would be the best chance to get Remus to help her with her plan to get James and Lily together.

Jasmine headed to the library with the excuse to the girls that she also needed to go study. And technically she did, but she figured she would first talk to Remus about Jily then get her studying done. She could kill two birds with two stones.

Jasmine found Remus sitting (thankfully) by himself at a table in a somewhat secluded part of the library. It was the same table that Jasmine preferred to do her studying at something that Jaz couldn’t help but smiling about when she found Remus shared her preference. She walked up to Remus, and to get his attention, put her hand on the book he was reading for his notes. Remus looked up and smiled at the girl when he realized it was Jasmine. “Hey, Jaz. You need something?”

“Well, besides the fact that you totally stole my usual table for studying, I need to talk to you.”

Remus raised his one eyebrow in response. “Well, last time I checked, this table doesn’t have you name written on it.” Then a smirk appeared on his face before he continued. “But otherwise, what is it you need to talk to me about. It better not be about Sirius. I already get enough from him about your relationship. I don’t think I could possibly take much more of it, especially if you are contributing now.”

Jasmine chuckled quietly. “No, it’s not about Sirius, but nice to know that he talks about us so much.”

“It’s starting to get ridiculous. I thought it was bad enough when he was quietly pining over you, but this is so much worse.” Remus realized they were talking about exactly what he really didn’t want to talk about. “So, if it isn’t Sirius you want to talk about, then what is it you wanted to talk about.” By this point Remus had set his parchment and books off to the side so that they were out of the way.

“I know you know about Lily and her true feelings about James.” Remus sighed in relief, which was not the reaction that Jasmine had been expecting to get from her revelation.

“Oh, thank god. I am so glad Lily took my advice and told you.”

Now instead of Remus being shocked, Jasmine was. “Wait, what? You told her to tell me? Why?” But Jasmine didn’t even let him answer that. “You know what, never mind. It doesn’t matter. She didn’t even tell me until I confronted her about the necklace.”

“Necklace? What necklace?” Remus asked confused. He didn’t know anything about any necklace and what that could possibly do with Lily’s feeling for James.

“The necklace that James got her for Christmas,” Jasmine explained, but she saw that Remus was still confused. So, Jaz explained further. “James didn’t tell you?” Remus shook his head no. “Oh, well, he got her this absolutely beautifully simple yet elegant necklace with an emerald on it. It was absolutely beautiful. And I could tell Lily loved the necklace even if she made a fuss about not wanting to wear it because it was from James. Apparently, she loved it more than I thought because she has been wearing it since we got back from our break. She has it hidden underneath her robes. I just happened to see it on her before she tucked it underneath her robes the other day. It was that same day that I pissed her off and she stormed out of the common room, remember?”

“Oh, wow. Was that why she was so pissed at you that morning?”

“No. Actually I had decided to scare her, and she got really mad at me. I wasn’t sure why she was so mad at me for just scaring her until I confronted her about the necklace later.” Jasmine paused debating whether she wanted to tell Remus about Lily’s suspicions about their activities on the full moon each month. When Remus motioned for her to continue, she decided that she would just tell him. Maybe he could help her convince the guys that they should tell Lily the truth. “Well, after she told me about her feelings for James, she accused me of keeping secrets from her, which I have been. You know about our activities on the full moon. I have no idea when she figured out that I was sneaking out during the full moons, but she did.”

Remus’ eyes were as wide as saucers now. “Wait, she knows?!” Remus whisper-screamed they were still in the library after all.

“No, not yet at least. She didn’t know what I was doing on the full moon nights, but she suspects it has something to do with you and the guys. All I told her was that it wasn’t just my secret, which it isn’t, but I think we should really tell her.” Remus opened his mouth to disagree, but Jasmine didn’t give him the chance. “Wait, here me out. It will be better if she hears it from us. She will eventually figure it out. Lily isn’t stupid, and she will eventually put everything together. And I am thinking that it is more than likely going to be sooner rather than later. So, if we tell her first, yes, she will be pissed at us, but not for as long as she would be if she figures it out herself. Plus, if we tell her that it was James idea to finally tell her, then we can totally use that to get them together finally. So, what do you think, Moony? Will you help me convince the others that we need to tell Lily about our activities on the full moon?”

Remus was conflicted. On one hand, Jaz had a point about it being better to tell Lily sooner rather than later. But on the other hand, he could see Lily trying to stop the others from going out on the full moon, which Remus didn’t entirely mind happening, but he knew that James and Sirius would take issue with it. They wanted to do everything they could possibly do to make Remus’ transformations a more enjoyable time for him, and they had. Remus knew that Jasmine was right, and they needed to tell Lily. Sighing, Remus agreed. “Fine, Jaz, but it’s going to be really hard to convince James and Sirius to tell Lily.”

“Oh, but I think it will be easier than you think.” At Remus’ raised eyebrow, Jaz explained herself. “Well, I clearly already have Sirius’ wrapped around my finger, so will it really be that hard to convince him with a few well-placed kisses. And James, well I have a feeling if we tell him that we plan on telling Lily it was his idea to tell her in the first place he will be more on board with the idea, especially after I tell him it might just get Lily to see him in a new light, if you know what I mean.”

Remus smirked at the girl. “Damn, Jaz. I didn’t know you could be so devious. But I think that might just work.”

“We’ll have to talk to them either later tonight or tomorrow because I didn’t just come down here to talk with you, Moony. I have work to do too.” With that being said, both of them got to work on what they needed to do.

* * *

Jasmine and Remus were luckily able to accomplish their work just before dinner in the Great Hall. They decided before they left, they would meet in the boys’ dorm to convince James and Sirius of their plan. They would discuss when they wanted to tell Lily once the rest of the Marauders were on board with the idea.

After dinner, they all headed up to the boys’ dorm. As per usual, each boy sat on their own bed, while Jaz sat on Sirius’ bed as she usually would. This time though, her and Sirius got a lot closer than they had before they got together. So, there they all were in the room, chilling after dinner, but just as Jasmine was about to bring up her idea about telling Lily about their extracurricular activities on the night of the full moon, James started up a conversation about the pranks that he had been thinking about having them pull this term. It wasn’t long before Jasmine forgot about her plan and got into the prank planning conversation.

By the time that Jasmine finally brought up her original idea about Lily, it was pretty late. They ended up talking about pranks for a while before moving onto the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. And sometime during this Jasmine had moved from cuddling into Sirius to laying her head on his lap where he was combing his fingers through her strawberry blonde hair.

Now, though, they were all sitting in a comfortable silence. Jasmine let the silence last several minutes, before she finally brought up her original reason for joining the boys in their dorm after dinner. Before speaking though, Jasmine sat up and removed Sirius’ hands from her hair. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and gave Remus a quick glance before finally breaking the silence.

“So, boys,” Jasmine started from her new spot on Sirius’ bed. All the boys turned to look at her, especially Remus and Sirius. Remus was looking at her because he knew what was about to go down, and Sirius was just looking at Jasmine wondering why Jasmine had decided to move from her previous spot. He missed the warm her head had brought to his lap.

Once Jasmine was sure that all the boys were paying attention, she continued. “So, I was thinking, and I think that we should tell Lily about us being animagi.”

No one said anything for a while. Both Sirius and James ware staring at Jaz in stunned silence. Remus, on the other hand, was just sitting silently, waiting and watching to see what happened next. While Peter was just waiting to see what James and Sirius would say about the subject. He wasn’t about to be the tie breaker. He would end up going with the majority, or James and Sirius. Peter wasn’t about to go against the “leader” of their little group.

It was several minutes before anyone spoke up and broke the stunned silence. Surprisingly, it wasn’t James as it usually was. Instead, this time it was Sirius who broke it. “Mare,” Sirius began. He was staring at her and Jaz could feeling, but she refused to look at him lest she lose her initial resolve about telling Lily. She knew that if she looked up at her boyfriend, Jaz knew that she would be met with eyes that she didn’t know if she could say no to, so she couldn’t look at him. But despite her protests, what Sirius said next broke her resolve. “I get how you would want to tell your cousin, but why now? What has changed?”

Anger flooded through Jasmine’s veins. She turned toward her boyfriend and stared at him. “What do you mean ‘What’s changed’? Everything had changed.” Jaz started to raise her voice. She stood up from her spot next to Sirius suddenly and started pacing angrily in around the room. “Everything has changed Sirius. I’ve been lying and keeping things from Lily. And now I just can’t keep doing it anymore, especially not after what she gave me for Christmas.” Jaz was now on the verge of tears and a complete breakdown, and Sirius could see this. So, he stood up and pulled the girl he loved into his arms.

At first, Jaz resisted Sirius’ embrace, but Sirius held on. Jasmine needed him and he wasn’t about to let her push him away. It wasn’t long before Jaz finally gave in to Sirius. Instead of continuing to fight and resist him, Jaz fell apart in her boyfriend’s arms. She broke down in his arms and started to cry. Slowly, they both were joined in their hug by James, Remus, and Peter. The other boys couldn’t let Sirius do all the comforting. They were all her friends, after all.

So, there they all were: the boys all huddled around one of their best friends, smothering her in a group hug. It was a while before Jasmine calmed down again enough that she could better explain herself. It was at that point that the boys finally released the girl from their group hug.

Once out of the hug, Jasmine dried her tears as best she could and sat back down on Sirius’ bed. Sirius sat down next to her and pulled her into a side hug. Jasmine responded by cuddling into Sirius’ side, but she still faced the other boys. Meanwhile, the other boys, instead of going to sit back on their own beds, chose to sit on the floor in front of Jasmine. They wanted to be close in case she broke down again, as well as to hear what she had to say about her breakdown.

After a few minutes of enjoying Sirius’ warmth and embrace, Jaz found her voice even albeit quieter than it was before and began to explain herself. “I am so sorry guys . I don’t know what came over me.”

Before Jaz could apologize anymore, both James and Sirius interrupted her at the same time. But it all sounded like gibberish and no one could understand what they were saying. They didn’t continue for very long since they realized that no one could understand them.

Once they stopped, Sirius motioned for James to go first. James gave him a nod before speaking up. “Jazzy, there is no reason that you should be apologizing for breaking down. You have the right to fall apart whether it is all the time or only sometimes or even never again. It doesn’t matter, not to us at least.” Jasmine gave him a watery smile, but this time her eyes were filling with happy tears. James, though, didn’t realize this and started to panic. “Jazzy, no, don’t cry. What did I say wrong?”

Jaz was quick to squash his panic and worry. “No, Prongs, these are happy tears. I just… besides Lily, I’ve never has friends that care about me as much as you boys do. I mean I had friends at Beauxbatons, but we never got very close, especially since I tended to keep everyone at a distance because of my mom and what was going on. It means so much to me that you all care this much about little ‘ole me.”

In response, the boys except Sirius, not wanting to get up from their spots on the floor, all gave her a smile. Each smile gave Jaz a warm feeling inside. Meanwhile, Sirius, still holding Jaz, gave her a squeeze to let her know he was still there and would be there for her no matter what. That squeeze gave Jaz an even better feeling inside. She was loved and she knew it. All of these feelings warmed Jaz so much that she was finally able to explain to them her real reasoning for wanting to tell Lily the truth. “I love you guys so much.” Jaz turned to glance at Sirius. “Some differently than others.” The boys all let out a chuckle at this. “Anyway, I feel that I should explain my reasoning for wanting to tell Lily about our full moon activities.” And so, Jaz did. She explained to them how Lily confronted her about keeping something from her (while successfully not mentioning Lily’s feeling for James). Jaz told them how she did her best to keep the truth from her cousin and best girl friend. That’s when Jaz got into her true reasoning behind wanting to tell Lily, a reasoning that not even Remus knew about. “So, I tried my best to keep the truth from her, but I feel like I am breaking my promise to Lily, a promise I made a long time ago.”

Jasmine almost got lost in the memory of the bracelet like she had on Christmas when she first saw the replacement friendship bracelet. What stopped her was the squeeze she felt on her arm. Sirius, who was still holding his girlfriend, had squeezed Jaz’s arm to reassure her that she wasn’t alone anymore. He also could see that Jasmine was starting to get lost in the memory of the promise she had made Lily Evans. So, instead of letting Jaz get lost in the memory, Sirius pulled her back. Jaz, still cuddling slightly with Sirius, looked up at the boy with a grateful look before she continued with her explanation. “I made a promise with Lily before either of us knew we were witches or anything about the magic world and before either of my parents died. Anyway, we were young and super close. So, one day we were hanging out when one of us brought up the idea of friendship bracelets. We both loved the idea, so we decided to make each other friendship bracelets.” Jasmine paused to lift up the sleeve of her robes to show the boys her friendship bracelet. “When we gave each other our bracelets, we made a promise to each other that we would never keep secrets from each other. And we never did, even when I moved away to France. Well, actually we didn’t keep any secrets while we both had our bracelets as reminders. So, when I lost mine when I was 11 at Beauxbatons, I no longer had that reminder. So, by the time I gave up on trying to find the bracelet, it was Christmas and I finally went home and that was when things with my mother started. And so, I kept a secret from Lily for the first time. It wasn’t my original intention, but I figured that there wasn’t much Lily could do. I also figured that Lily already had her issues with Petunia, so why burden her with my issues. Therefore, I kept the emotional abuse my mother was putting me through from Lily.

“Then my mother died, and Lily was there when I found her, as I’ve told you guys before. Well, I ended up ‘telling’ her everything that day about the emotional abuse. It was such a relief to not have anymore secrets from Lily. And I didn’t have any secrets from her until I met you boys.”

At that statement, the boys suddenly felt incredibly guilty. They knew Jaz wasn’t trying to make them feel guilty, but it couldn’t be helped. They knew they were at least part of the reason for creating a rift between the two girls who used to be so close before ethe boys and their own secrets entered Jasmine’s life. The boys didn’t get eh chance to apologize or anything more before Jaz continued with her explanation. “But guys, I didn’t entirely mind keeping secrets from Lily if it meant protecting you guys. You four boys are probably the first friends that I’ve had, that aren’t related to me, where I can be myself with. Besides Lily, I’ve never had friends who truly know me because I couldn’t really be the real me at Beauxbatons. I was afraid to be me in fear that I would get expelled because of my pranks. Pranks were also highly frowned upon. I didn’t want to chance anything, so I was never fully me while I was there. When I came here and met you boys, I finally felt that I could actually be me and that was an amazing feeling. So, please don’t feel bad about having me keep secrets from Lily. I really didn’t mind.”

It was then that Remus realized something, so he interrupted with a question. “Wait a minute.” Everyone turned to look at him. “You said you lost your friendship bracelet and I’ve never noticed you wearing that bracelet before, so how did you get a new one?”

“Oh, I almost forgot. That is what has changed with my attitude for keeping secrets from Lily. This Christmas, Lily gave me this friendship bracelet. It is an exact replicate of the one that I lost all those years ago. And now every time that I see the bracelet, I’m reminded that I’m keeping secrets from Lily, and I hate it. I hate that the bracelet instead of bringing me happiness like it originally had, it brings me guilt. So, it is because of this bracelet as well as the fact that Lily knows that I am keeping something from her have convinced me that we should tell her about us being animagi. Not only would it relieve me of my guilt, but Prongs, if we tell her it was your idea, I’m sure that will put you closer to your goal of finally getting together with Lily.” Jasmine smirked at James saying that last part to him directly.

James smirked right back at Jaz. “That is an absolutely brilliant idea Jazzy. I love it. And I completely agree that we should tell Lily the truth, but not just because it will get me in her good books. I trust her not to tell on us.”

Jasmine gave James an appreciative smile before turning to the boy who she was still cuddling with. “So, Pads, what do you say? Can we tell Lily?”

Sirius smiled at the girl in his arms. “Of course, Mare, anything for you.” The love in his eyes was clear for everyone in the room to see, which is why it didn’t surprise any of them that he leaned down and kissed Jasmine. It wasn’t a very long or deep kiss since they weren’t alone, but it was still a kissed that expressed their feelings even if they weren’t ready to say those feelings out loud just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Well, this chapter turned out way longer than I expected it to be. I think it is probably the longest chapter yet. I just wanted to add that stuff about Jaz and Remus finding out about Lily’s feelings for James. Then there was the whole scene when Jaz and Remus go to convince the others about telling Lily the truth about their animagi status and that sort of just spiraled in a way that I originally didn’t plan, but I ended up really liking. So, I really hope you all enjoyed this long chapter. I’ll try to update when I can, but I can’t promise that will be soon. Although, reviews or comments do motivate me to want to update sooner.
> 
> Happy March,  
> 🐰 Knk6700 🐰


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